We have smoking bans because 'There is no safe level of exposure to SHS'. Thus,there is a smoking ban at O'Hare Airport in Chicago and Illinois itself. These bans are mostly the work of the Chicago area politicians and anti-smokers.
Gary K.
http://www.forces.org/evidence/files/airplane.htm
(This is based upon the assumption that all the 21 milligrams constituting the average emission of a cigarette are released in the atmosphere as opposed to being partially retained by the body, which is the case in real life.)

Except for nicotine, the byproducts of after-combustion aircraft fuel and cigarettes are the same. The difference is one of scale -- tons versus milligrams.

We have often been asked: "how many cigarettes equal the take off of an airplane?"

Let us say that the brand new, absolutely-smoke-free 747-400 leaves behind the equivalent of 3,224,000 cigarettes.

Isn't it ironic that the "smoke-free", "clean air" of the O'Hare Airport facilities is pumped in from this kind of outside environment?

Let us see now how many cigarettes per hour the figure above equates to. Let's figure 30 take-offs per hour(a low number) and we get 96,720,000 cigarettes per hour.

Let's say that there are 2.2 million smokers in Illinois.

This means that all of those smokers would have to be gathered at O'Hare and each one would have to smoke 44 cigarettes per hour to equal the emissions from those departing airplanes.

Then there are the emissions from the 10's of thousands of cars,taxis,busses,trucks and ramp vehicles that are at O'Hare every day.

http://www.forces.org/evidence/files/north-st.htm

"It has been estimated by the E.P.A. that 50% of the total cancer incidence from air toxins in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Baton Rouge, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, from 1980-1995, would be attributable to emissions of benzene and 1,3 butadiene from motor vehicles."

http://www.forces.org/evidence/files/aircare.htm
Preface
The posting attached to this text file contains a study done by the Province of British Columbia entitled Technical Review of the AirCare Program: Program Year Three -- September 1994 to August 1995.

This is an interesting document containing what may be the first weighted emissions figures from "live" cars -- that is, vehicles in daily use by members of the driving public -- in the world.

A few qualifiers
1) The AirCare study - like any other emission study at this point in time - is not to be considered absolute or conclusive. The figures are indeed quite optimistic, if one considers that they are pertinent only to cars/light trucks, and do not take into account heavy trucks/buses, industrial pollution, stationary engines, airplanes, and many other contributors. It is quite conceivable that actual air pollution exceeds the study's figures by a factor of five or more.


Let us express the above emissions in "cigarette pollution equivalent", or the amount of cigarettes it takes to equal the figures above.

The average cigarette contains about 12 mg of carbon monoxide and an equal amount of tar (hydrocarbon-like substance). It also contains about 1.2 mg of nicotine. Nicotine is not a component of internal combustion engine emissions, therefore it is difficult to properly locate in this comparison. However, since it is part of "cigarette emissions" we will be fair, and shall add it to the total, which mounts now to 25.2 mg.

This is the equivalent of:

5.78571428515 [to the 15th power] (57,500 billions) cigarettes each year
7,358,400 cigarettes each U.S. square mile every year (including Alaska & Hawaii)
22 millions cigarettes per person each year
20,160 cigarettes each U.S. square mile every day (including Alaska & Hawaii)
157.5 billions cigarettes each day
60,875 cigarettes per person each day
2,540 cigarettes per person each hour
42.5 cigarettes per person each minute

Gee guys, aren't you dead, yet? Don't die, because these are just national averages.

We assume here that the pollution is equally distributed through the territory, that is, Uncle Joe's farm in Montana gets the same amount of pollution than L.A.. Well, we all know that this is not true.

In harmony with our optimistic nature, we will assume that the concentration of air pollutants in New York, Chicago, Toronto, or L.A. is only 1.5 times the national average.

OK you city dwelling, militant non-smokers, here is what your cars put in the air in your towns! Feel guilty, and think of it every time you gasp air to condemn us smokers!

33 million cigarettes per person each year
91,300 cigarettes per person each day
3,810 cigarettes per person each hour
64 cigarettes per person each minute


"Ah!" -- the anti-smoker preacher says during retreat -- "But the emissions of cars are diluted in the air, whereas you filthy smokers make me breathe your emissions concentrated in a restaurant!"

While is true that AirCare measures car emissions with the probe stuck into the tailpipe of the car, it is also true that EPA measures secondhand smoke emissions with the probe stuck on the tip of the cigarette.

In fact, with a bit of sensible ventilation, secondhand smoke ceases to be significantly measurable under real-life conditions.

Gary,

I often read your posts and want to honor them with a response, because I know that you put alot of effort into them.

The problem is that once you've deeply ensconced your verbal foot into the ass of the issue, there's little left to add.

Once you've hit the ball out the park, there's little for us to say in response. I guess that's what I'm saying.

The unfortunate part of this equation is that I am way beyond believing that anti-smoking, or the public at large, will have any response to reason.

I agree!

In fact posts such as this one should be placed in a special area of the site by the moderator for future reference by all of us.