Abstract
To the Editor.— Passive Smoking on Commercial Airline Flights, by Mattson et al, 1 is clearly intended to prove a point (smoking on airliners is hazardous to nonsmokers) rather than simply to establish the truth (whether smoking on airliners is hazardous to nonsmokers). Consider these points, none of which were dealt with in the report: The mean quantity of nicotine reported, 12 μg/m 3 , amounts to only about 17 parts per billion—0.017 ppm—when corrected upward for cabin air density equivalent to an altitude of about 2400 m. (I am informed that hydrogen cyanide is breathable for a substantial period at several 1000 times that concentration.) Cabin air is replaced every 4 to 5 minutes, according to Boeing, on the basis of 0.6 m 3 /min per passenger. At 16 respirations per minute, or about 10 L, it would take an hour and 40 minutes to absorb 12 millionths of a
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