这篇文章探讨了机场吸烟室在全球反烟浪潮中依然存续的矛盾现象。尽管全球已有89个国家完全禁止在机场吸烟，英国更于2025年立法禁止向2008年后出生者销售烟草，但仍有超过100个国家允许机场设置室内吸烟室。这些密闭、通风不良的空间被反烟组织批评为「过时的遗物」，研究显示二手烟会从吸烟室泄漏至机场其他区域，对非吸烟旅客的健康构成威胁。
文章揭示了烟草业与机场之间隐秘的商业关系。慕尼黑机场拥有26间由骆驼、云斯顿等品牌赞助的吸烟室，苏黎世机场承认其吸烟室维护与烟草公司「协调」进行，日本烟草国际公司在全球经营约70间吸烟及电子烟休息室。反烟研究者指出，即使是无品牌标志的吸烟室也等同于香烟广告，透明玻璃墙的设计更将吸烟者展示给路人，可能对年轻人产生不良示范效应。机场则以旅客需求为由为吸烟区辩护，底特律、特拉维夫等机场甚至重新开放或新建吸烟设施。
文章最后指出，全球仍有近十亿吸烟者，电子烟使用者也已达一亿人，烟草业正积极转向赞助电子烟休息室。马尼拉机场设有由IQOS赞助的加热烟草专用休息室，迪拜、伊斯坦堡和罗马等机场亦有类似设施。尽管医学界对机场吸烟现象深感困惑，格陵兰2024年启用的新航站楼仍设有大型吸烟室。研究者早在2011年便将机场描述为烟草业「最后的避风港」，但十五年后，这场清算似乎仍遥遥无期。
This article examines the paradox of airport smoking lounges persisting amid an ever-intensifying global anti-smoking movement. While 89 countries have banned airport smoking entirely and the UK has legislated to prohibit tobacco sales to anyone born after 2008, over 100 countries still permit indoor smoking rooms at airports. Anti-smoking organizations condemn these poorly ventilated enclosures as antiquated relics, citing research showing that secondhand smoke leaks from these rooms into the broader terminal, endangering nonsmoking passengers and airport workers alike.
The piece reveals the covert commercial ties between tobacco companies and airports. Munich Airport hosts 26 smoking lounges sponsored by brands like Camel, Winston, and Ploom; Zurich Airport acknowledges that its smoking lounge maintenance is 'coordinated' with a tobacco company; and Japan Tobacco International operates roughly 70 smoking and vaping lounges worldwide. Researchers at Stanford argue that even unbranded smoking rooms function as billboard advertisements, with transparent glass walls effectively putting smokers on display. Airports counter by citing passenger demand — Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport reopened its smoking booths three years after closing them, calling it a 'public service,' and Detroit proposed a new cigar lounge in response to community interest.
The article concludes by noting that nearly one billion smokers remain worldwide and the number of vapers has reached 100 million, with the tobacco industry aggressively pivoting to sponsor vaping lounges at airports including Manila, Dubai, Istanbul, and Rome. Despite medical professionals' bewilderment at the persistence of airport smoking and the availability of nicotine alternatives like gum and patches, new smoking facilities continue to be built — Greenland's Nuuk terminal, opened in 2024, features a large glass-enclosed smoking room. Researchers described airports as among tobacco's 'last remaining havens' back in 2011, yet fifteen years later, a full reckoning for airports and their smokers still appears distant.