Abstract:
As per the WHO, the infections might happen in crowded and
inadequately ventilated spaces like airports through aerosolized
or very small droplets. Doctors have expressed apprehensions
that small, poorly ventilated designated smoking areas, as at
airports, can accelerate the spread of infectious diseases, parti-
cularly respiratory infections [1] . In fact, the particulate matter
(PM) of air inside these designated smoking areas at airports is 15
times higher than that the recommended by WHO (10 μg/m 3
)
which further poses a higher risk of spread of infections among
people smoking tobacco at these confined place [2] .
Tobacco smoking can severely damage the respiratory organs
and is one of the major contributing factors to respiratory
infection [3] . Tobacco smoke contains more than 7000 com-
pounds of which nicotine, a major component that is well known
to develop tobacco addiction [4] , and other 200 (such as benz-
pyrene, arsenic, and cadmium) compounds are identified as
noxious and oncogenic as they may irritate the respiratory tract
and reduce the erythrocyte’s oxygen transport capacity.
