Logan to accommodate international smokers with lounge
Boston health official says lounge compromises smokers, servers

By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff, 06/09/02

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Logan International Airport is moving ahead with plans to open a bar for smokers, even as Boston health officials are pushing hard for regulations that would ban such establishments.

The Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates Logan, says the smoking lounge in international Terminal E is designed to cater primarily to foreign travelers who requested it.

``International travelers recommended in comment cards that we give them a place to smoke,'' said Phil Orlandella, Logan's Massport spokesman. ``I think they're just used to it in their countries.''

John Auerbach, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission, the city agency expected to approve the smoking ban sometime this fall, said Massport's rationale makes no sense. Those same international travelers who want to smoke while waiting in the terminal probably also want to smoke on their much longer flights, Auerbach said.

``Airlines are not going to say yes to that request,'' Auerbach said. ``I think this policy is ill-conceived and, quite frankly, a dangerous policy.''

Massport, as an independent state authority, would not be subject to any workplace smoking ban approved by Boston. City officials say the proposed smoking ban, which would cover restaurants and bars, is necessary to protect workers from second-hand smoke that has been known to cause illness and even death.

Logan's smoking policy openly acknowledges the same health risks that Boston officials are concerned about. It cites reports from the US surgeon general as well as the Environmental Protection Agency stating that nonsmokers need to be protected from second-hand smoke, which has been linked to ``acute and chronic lung disease, as well as carcinoma of the lung in nonsmokers.''

The airport policy had prohibited smoking in all public areas and allowed it only in posted areas outside of each terminal. It was amended last year to also allow it ``in the designated smoking concession facility in Terminal E.''

Thomas J. Kinton Jr., Logan's director of aviation, approved the new smoking facility in a so-called executive director's memorandum. The policy change did not require the approval of the Massport board, Orlandella said.

Orlandella said that while a smoking lounge in Terminal E has been given the green light, the specific building plans for the facility have not been approved yet. Nor has an operator been chosen. Orlandella said the lounge is not likely to open before January. He said it would have a special ventilation system to prevent smoke from entering the rest of the terminal.

Orlandella said Logan approved the lounge as a customer service, and opening the bar may have other beneficial side-effects.

Currently, smokers who have gone through security and want to light up have to go outside the terminal. Retailers inside the terminal complain that this exodus costs them sales. Security screeners also dislike it because many travelers have to be rescreened.

Like Logan, the Los Angeles, Detroit, and Dallas/Fort Worth airports are all weighing adding smoking lounges. Dallas/Fort Worth, which has banned smoking since 1993, is considering opening a smoking lounge in its Terminal B and, if successful, adding them in other terminals.

Officials at Dallas/Fort Worth have estimated that if 5 percent of passengers, or 1.9 million people, leave the building every year to smoke, about 315,000 hours would be spent on rescreening.

Orlandella said there are no plans to add other Logan smoking areas. ``There's been no indication that smoking is an issue in the other terminals,'' he said.

Auerbach said the lack of focus at Logan on the medical problems associated with smoking and second-hand smoke is disturbing. Boston and 11 neighboring communities last month announced the formation of Clean Air Works, a coalition committed to banning workplace smoking.

Bruce Mohl can be reached by e-mail at mohl@globe.com.