Southwest Florida International Airport tweaks smoke rules
The smoking ban inside Southwest Florida International Airport’s passenger terminal could go outside.
Business people who advise Lee County’s Board of Port Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously recommended establishing marked no-smoking zones outside the terminal within 50 feet of the two main entry doors – numbered 2 and 5 – on both the terminal’s first and second levels.
“I don’t want to risk having a total ban,” said Airports Special Management Committee Chairwoman Fran Myers. She called Tuesday’s decision preferable to suggesting no change in airport rules, which some commissioners believe are too lax on smokers and distressing to people with breathing problems.
Bonita Springs winter resident Sophie DeWitt, 62, grabbed a smoke outside the terminal Tuesday afternoon while waiting for her son to arrive from Canada.
To move outdoor smoking farther away from the main entrances “is no problem for me,” said DeWitt, who described herself as a light, occasional smoker.
Still, the airport “should provide some area for people to smoke, and to have that last cigarette before they board a plane. That’s just fair,” DeWitt said.
Initially, most committee members endorsed the status quo, which restricts ash cans to no closer than 25 feet from any terminal entry door, and also provides for two employee smoking areas far from the doors.
“I think banning smoking is not the right move for us, at least not now,” said committee member Kitty Green. Noting that Lee Memorial Health System recently banned smoking on the grounds of its medical centers, Green said airport leaders should see how that works out for Lee Memorial, and “learn from their experiences.”
Committee member Dan Baggot said a total ban on smoking outside the terminal could hurt the region’s lifeblood tourism industry. “I don’t see where hassling (tourists who smoke) helps anyone,” Baggot said.
The committee’s proposal is less than the total ban Commissioner Frank Mann suggested airport managers consider at a Nov. 9 meeting between the airports committee and commissioners.
Mann could not be reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon. An aide didn’t know whether he’d heard the committee’s compromise recommendations.
Those recommendations will go to Lee County commissioners sitting as the port authority board at their next joint meeting with the airports committee. That meeting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 11.
