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Smoking rooms can be a place of "close contact".
It is urgent to close all smoking areas and smoking rooms.
Manabu Sakuta, MD, Chair of the Japan Society for Tobacco Control
The Japan Society for Infection Prevention and Control COVID-19 guideline that deals withcontagious diseases defines close contact as ① or ②.
①_ For interacting with patients with the new coronavirus infection:
being within about 2 meters andspending more than a few minutes of time with the patient② Having direct contact with the bodily fluids of patients with the new coronavirus withoutwearing protective equipment (from coughing, saliva, mucus or phlegm on a tissue, forexample).
For example, close contact would be interacting with a patient with the coronavirus infection
within 2 meters for a few minutes without wearing a mask (both the patient and the otherperson) or being exposed to a cough of such a patient. If such cases occur, it is thenrecommended to stay at home for two weeks and to observe any potential coronavirus
symptoms.

Another example of “close contact” is being in a smoking room—where smokers do not wear
masks, typically stand within 2 meters of each other, and stay for 5-6 minutes on average (*).
(Table)(*) Fumiaki Suzuki, Takahiro Kasamatsu. Survey of active smoking and passive
smoking in smoking rooms at airports in Japan. Journal of the Japan Society of
Smoking Science, Vol. 11, No. 5, October 31, 2016

Setting

Medical examination room

Smoking area/smoking room

Examination of a patient

Smoked a single cigarette in thewith a cough (and asmoking room. Some smokers coughconfirmed coronavirus

within 2m

infection the next day)Oneself(Doctor) without mask

Without mask

Other person(Patient) without mask

Without mask

Distance

1m

50cm-1m

Contact time

5 minutes or more

Average of 5-6 minutes

Judgment

Close contact

Close contact(Guidelines of(If a smoker in the same room is also athe Japaneseperson infected with coronavirus)

Society for
Infection
Prevention andControl)
Employment

14 days waiting at home forrestrictions

health observation？

It has been reported that many people who are infected with coronavirus have no fever andonly a cough. Some infected people are asymptomatic before the subsequent onset ofsymptoms.
Of course, a smoking room is an enclosed space, but it has a prescribed air flow velocity of
0.2m/sec for ventilation. However, when the smoking area is crowded, the prescribed air

flow velocity is not always maintained. In addition, smokers frequently cough to clear theirlungs of phlegm.
So smoking areas and smoking rooms are places that can create close contact according todefinitions ① or ②, thereby increasing the risk of coronavirus infection. In addition,smoking itself has been associated with a higher risk of coronavirus infection and of deathfrom such an infection. Therefore, our medical society strongly recommends that smoking
areas and smoking rooms be closed and removed during this contagion to prevent further
spread of infection.
It is urgently important to close all smoking areas and smoking rooms.
Moreover, both active and passive smoking increase the risk of coronavirus infection, cause
or aggravate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), more generally damage thelungs, and decrease immunity.
Current smokers are 2.84 times more likely to be hospitalized in the intensive care unit
(ICU), to wear a respirator, or to die than never smokers, as we have reported previously. Inaddition, the harms of tobacco have been widely reported in media.
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Smokers are encouraged to use this opportunity to quit smoking.
Smoking cessation will reduce the risk of coronavirus infection to that of non-smokers andhave more general and long-lasting health benefits.

2020/03/12