BUTT OUT Salt Lake International Airport to phase out smoking rooms

Posted on 05/26/2016 | About Salt Lake City, Utah

The Salt Lake City International Airport is planning to get rid of smoking rooms to join more than 600 other airports that are already smoke-free. Airport officials said in a news release Tuesday that they will phase out five smoking rooms starting in July and ending in December. Smokers will have to light up outside, 25 feet from entrances.

The closure of the smoking rooms will free up 1,200 square feet in the concourses for extra seating, stores and charging stations for electronics. The $1.8 billion airport renovation scheduled for the next few years doesn't include any smoking rooms either. Most of the busiest airports in the US are smoke-free, including ones in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says airport smoking rooms are not effective in eliminating secondhand smoke.