Better out than in

Levels of airborne fine particulate matter in some of Taiwan’s nightclubs are worse than occur outdoors, according to a story in The Taipei Times quoting a non-governmental health organization.

The John Tung Foundation’s CEO Yao Shi-yuan said a study conducted by the foundation and academics last month had shown that levels of PM2.5 – airborne particles of 2.5 micrometers or smaller – at three pubs and nightclubs that allowed smoking indoors were much higher than were “unhealthy” outdoor levels.

At one establishment, a reading 12 times the unhealthy level had been recorded.

Forty-four nations had banned smoking indoors to protect employees from long-term exposure to second-hand smoke at work, and Taiwan should follow suit, Yao said.

Taipei Medical University researcher Kao Chi-wen, who conducted the survey with the John Tung Foundation and the Consumers’ Foundation, said that PM2.5 levels exceeding 71 micrograms per cubic meter of air (mg/m3) were considered “very high” and unhealthy for the human body, but levels measured at nightclubs were typically from 697.9 mg/m3 to 703.2 mg/m3, with the highest reading being 912 mg/m3.

Kao said some of the substances in second-hand smoke were finer than PM2.5, which meant they could be carried deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream.

The Consumers’ Foundation chairman Yu Kai-hsiung said that with the smoking rate in Taiwan at 16 percent, requiring pubs and nightclubs to ban smoking indoors would mean asking only a few people to step outside when they wanted to smoke. And doing so would provide a healthier indoor environment for others.

The foundations have urged the government to modify regulations to ban smoking in all indoor public places.