Work out the carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, fine particles (PM2.5), nicotine, formaldehyde and benzene in a smoking room from the number of cigarette and cigar smokers and the supply and extract airflows, checked against Dubai Municipality, WHO, ACGIH and OSHA limits. It also finds the room temperature and humidity the tempered supply air holds, with the people and smokers' heat.
Staff: 0 if no one works in the room.
Door opening: its clear area with the door open (0.9 × 2.1 m = 1.89 m²). Altitude and pressure set each other.
Supply air is filtered 100% outdoor air; extract above supply draws the rest in from next door, through the open door at the speed shown. Ventilation effectiveness Ez: 1.0 for ceiling supply and extract (ASHRAE 62.1). An air cleaner (scrubber) recirculates within the room only: its filter takes out particles (on smoke-sized ones: MERV 13 50%, MERV 14 75%, MERV 15 85%, MERV 16 95%, HEPA H13 99.95%, H14 99.995%), its carbon nicotine, formaldehyde and benzene, nothing takes out CO or CO₂, and it adds no outdoor air and does nothing for containment.
Room air reached
– °C – % RH
- Comfort
- –
- Wet bulb / dew point
- –
- Condensation
- –
- Outdoor air per person
- –
- Air changes (extract)
- –
- Time to 95% of steady level
- –
- Heat gains, sensible / latent
- –
Compliance · Dubai Municipality
- Containment (room)
- –
- Visitor
- –
- Staff
- –
| Pollutant | In the room (steady) |
Limit Dubai Municipality |
Visitor | Staff | Emitted mg/h |
Per cigarette mg |
Per cigar mg |
In supply air |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carbon monoxide (CO) | – | – | – | – | – | ppm | ||
| Carbon dioxide (CO₂) | – | – | – | – | – | ppm | ||
| Fine particles (PM2.5) | – | – | – | – | – | µg/m³ | ||
| Nicotine | – | – | – | – | – | µg/m³ | ||
| Formaldehyde | – | – | – | – | – | µg/m³ | ||
| Benzene | – | – | – | – | – | µg/m³ |
Pick the standard that applies where the room is (WHO where there is no national one); it decides red and green, and the room passes when containment, visitors and staff are all green. Visitor and Staff show the share of the limit used, in %, by the limit closest to failing; hover over a cell for every limit checked. Limits set over a time (1 h, 8 h, 24 h, a year) are compared with the average breathed over that time, from the hours a day in the room; short-term limits (15-minute STELs, ACGIH's 3× and 5× excursion rule) with the room's own steady level. Containment: negative pressure and at least 0.2 m/s into the room at the open door (Japan MHLW smoking-room standard; ASHRAE 62.1 also keeps smoke-free areas at a higher pressure). Sources: UAE Dubai Municipality DM-HSD-GU118 (2025) and Cabinet Decision 24 of 2013 (2 m² a person, set for shisha cafés); WHO indoor air guidelines 2010 and air quality guidelines 2021; EU Directives 2017/164, 2019/983, 2022/431 (workers) and 2024/2881 (air quality, 2030); UK HSE EH40/2005; ACGIH TLVs (nicotine 2025) and OSHA PELs; Japan's Building Sanitation Act; Hong Kong EPD IAQ Objectives 2019 (Good Class); China GB/T 18883-2022. Tobacco smoke's particles are almost all under 2.5 µm, so PM10 limits are checked against the PM2.5 level. No level of second-hand smoke is known to be safe, so green means within that standard, not harmless.