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Staying in a nonsmoking room in a hotel that allows smoking elsewhere does not prevent exposure to tobacco smoke. Staying in a nonsmoking room in a hotel that allows smoking elsewhere does not prevent exposure to tobacco smoke, a new study from Tobacco Control reports. Researchers examined a sample of 10 hotels with complete smoking bans and 30 with designated smoking rooms. They analyzed air and surfaces for tobacco smoke pollutants, took finger wipe samples to measure the presence of tobacco carcinogens, and tested the urine of nonsmoking occupants after they had stayed in the rooms, according to a story in the New York Times. Some nonsmoking rooms were low in pollutants, but at their worst, levels of tobacco air pollutants were almost five times as high in nonsmoking rooms as they were in rooms of non-smoking hotels, and pollution of surfaces was up to 25 times as high. In some cases, nonsmokers who stayed in nonsmoking rooms had signs of nicotine exposure in their urine that were more than twice as high as those of nonsmokers who stayed in nonsmoking hotels. |
