Airports Open Smoking Facilities
To Combat Drop-Off in Travel

Here's unexpected fallout from the drop in air travel: more chances to smoke.

Several airports -- including LAX, Dallas/Fort Worth, Boston and Detroit -- are considering opening new smoking facilities in terminals. An important reason for the change: With retail sales off 14%, airports are looking for ways to keep travelers in the terminal. Right now, many of them have to go outside to smoke.

Earlier this month, the DFW Airport Board told its staff to study the issue. And Detroit's Metropolitan Wayne County Airport is evaluating proposals for a bar and grill near the international gates that would permit smoking so "passengers would not need to go out to the curb front," says an airport spokesman. (That would require an exception to local laws banning smoking in county buildings.)

Another factor: With beefed-up security, going outside to smoke and then coming back through the screening checkpoint requires a lot of extra time.

"The purpose of clean air rules in airports is to protect nonsmokers from second-hand smoke, not to punish smokers," says Dr. Michael Thun of the American Cancer Society. "So it seems reasonable to me that airports would try to accommodate people who are addicted."