Cleaning the Air
Removing the Smoke, Not the Smoker

There are any number of ways to eliminate smoke and other harmful impurities from nightclub and bar venues.
    Recently, states including New York, California, Florida and Nevada have passed laws that outlaw smoking in on-premise settings such as restaurants, lounges and other public places, thus taking care of the issue at the source. Even in cities and states where smoking still is legal in public places, owners and operators have taken the initiative, either by mandating a no-smoking policy in their venues or segregating patrons who choose to smoke into separate smoking sections.
    For hospitality destinations such as Manhattan, where smoking at the bar long has been a tradition if not a virtual “right” of the barfly citizenry, the new no-smoking policies in reaction to this major health concern, as it has been determined by any number of medical studies, has been both costly and controversial. In the lower Manhattan entertainment districts of the Village, for instance, smokers who have taken their lighted butts to the street while out on the town have created new problems, including the issues of noise and outdoor second-hand smoke, that have led to confrontations and additional headaches for bar and lounge proprietors.
So what are owners who find themselves stuck in the middle, between the opposing sides, to do in order to keep the peace and the profit in a venue?

Purified Profit
    Depending on where it is located, there may be no alternative but to obey the law and humor the smokers who long for the good old days when they could enjoy their alcohol and their nicotine hand in hand. In places where management still has a say in the matter, however, such as venues where smoking is grandfathered into no-smoking laws or else smoking and non-smoking sections still are allowed, a number of air-purifying technologies are available to keep both sides happy and healthy.
    With more than 60 percent of its business generated by the bar and casino industry in Reno, Nev., National Air Purification Systems (NAPA) has extensive experience and the know-how to solve almost any venues smoking and air purification issues, says NAPA Consultant Aaron Gallegos.
    The company, which markets its air-purification technology throughout the United States, uses a three-stage filter system to clear the air, with the first set of filters picking up air particles at the 98- to 99-molecule range. The second set of filters, which Gallegos says have the same density as the first state with the addition of a charcoal additive, eliminates the cigarette smell, while the third stage filter, a double-duty combination of the first two, picks up airborne particles that the other filters did not stop.
    “This is not new,” Gallegos says. “As far as the filter, it has been around for years.” What is novel about the approach, however, is the way the filters are used in combination. “It is the thickness of the filters. The first and second stages are 4 inches thick and double pleated. They are high efficiency filters that allow more air to go through and reduce the amount of energy used to run the motor in the unit itself.”
The NAPA solution amounts to three bangs for the buck, Gallegos says.
    “Not only does it suck up cigar smoke but other airborne allergens as well. Standard filters don’t pick up very much,” he says. “They really just pick up dust, whereas ours picks up all the airborne particles, such as those generated when someone who is sick walks in and is coughing. So it reduces the potential for spreading germs — not just from surrounding areas, but by preventing them from getting into the HVAC system itself and spreading.”
    At Purifan, a Wichita, Kansas, air-purification company founded in 1998 by Stan Brannan, bars, clubs and restaurants also comprise the bulk of the demand for its indoor clear air services. In hospitality settings, Brannan says the majority of the clean air issues stem from cigarette smoke or from kitchen cooking odors, or dirty carpet odors created by spills.
    Although he says there is an ethical component to having clean air for everyone to breathe, Brannan says operators who perform this good deed get economic rewards as well.
    “Customers stay longer and spend more money when the air is clean and healthy,” Brannan says. Typically, he estimates, venues see a boost from 30 to as much as 200 percent in revenues and repeat business.
    “Even if they are smokers themselves, customers do not want their clothes to smell like smoke.”

The Right Thing
    Clean, smoke-free air also promotes business in another way, Brannan says.
“Second hand smoke is a serious health issue for employees. It drives up health risks and increases the number of days that they call in sick,” he says. “Having people home sick is not good for business. They are not making money, and you are not making money.”
    In addition to eliminating smoke from cigarettes as well as from food preparation areas, Brannan says air purification can save employers time and money by controlling dust.
    “If you have bottles with mirrors and lots of glass shelves, it is a nightmare to keep dust off of them.” And it is not just a matter of image, he says.
    “Keeping dust off bottles is a lot of wasted time and labor for employees.”
    After one restaurant and bar client installed his Purifan indoor clean air system, Brannan says the owner got a call from the janitorial service that came in to clean at 3 a.m.
    “They asked why someone was cleaning the bar before they got there,”
Brannan says.

Filtering Figures
    The cost for installing a NAPA air purification system runs about $1,495 per unit, Gallegos says. The number  of units required to do the job depends of the size of the venue, measured in cubic feet.
    “A 10,000-square-foot space could require six to eight units total,” he says.
Purifan clean air systems cost about $360 each, if ceiling fans already are in place. If ceiling fan installation also is required, the costs go up to $550 for a unit that covers 300 to 400 square feet.  
    Once installed, the cost of changing filters is only about $50 per 90 days or around $1.50 per day. The economic value to the house in having a roomful of happy repeat customers is a no-brainer, Brannan says.
“Owners should ask themselves, ‘How many drinks do I have to sell to m