"A compromise that would limit tobacco to airtight smoking rooms' in St. Paul bars and restaurants appeared to win majority support from the City Council Wednesday."
If it gets a smoking ban through, I'm OK with it. But as a 12-year bar/restaurant worker (I slung hash in the same hotel as Robert Lilligren), I wonder about some practical difficulties, many admittedly minor:
1. Define air-tightness: Does that mean airlocks? After all, doors to the smoke-filled room have to open. How to keep the smoke from pouring out? (Admittedly, there would be less ambient smoke than currently, but I'm leery that using a term such as "airtight" is overselling the practical reality.)
2. Call it "the drug-dealing room." As I understand it, no employee is compelled to enter the Nicotine Chamber. The rooms will either be separate or, in the case of a glassed-in room, obscured by smoke. Not so great for security.
3. Air-quality standards. I understand that these rooms have to be ventilated, but is there any standard for air quality they must meet?
4. Proven success. Any other locality tried this successfully?
Also, a tip of the cap to WJ Kahn's wonderful coinage "Vice Asylum."
David Brauer Kingfield
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