[ Post a Response | The Sublime Desire of Cigarette Smoking ]
Posted by Marcus on November 10, 2008, 1:31 pm, in reply to "Re: Smoking Lounge / Area Maintenance"
I am sure that there is some social engineering taking place. The Atlanta Airport lounge is fairly well maintained. Every hour or so custodial staff empties ashtrays and wastebaskets and the seats are in good condition. They just aren't well ventilated. I am told that the airport claims that it can't provide good air exchange because it would harm the air quality in the rest of the airport. I'm afraid I don't buy that argument.
Despite generally good maintenance, the lounges are still small glassed-in boxes sequestering smokers while also putting us on display to the disdainful looks of people walking by. Equally interesting to me are the airport bars/restaurants that allow smoking. They are much better maintained, and certainly larger and more comfortable, although the air quality is just as bad. (When you have 50 to 100 people smoking in the same place at the same time any HVAC system would be hard pressed to keep up.) The distinguishing feature, though, apart from serving food and beverage, is that they tend to be tucked away so the filthy smokers enjoying their filthy habit aren't on display. In a conversation with a woman in such a place in the Denver airport recently she observed that "When I go to the smoking rooms in the Atlanta airport, if feel like I'm doing something bad because I have to. Here, I feel like I'm doing something bad because I want to."
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