News

Air-Con Smoking Cabins Will be Launched in S’pore by End of 2019

2019-05-22 , 3:00 pm

Over the years, smoking has met many barriers:

Anti-smoking areas
Strict fines
Designated smoking spots

Yet, despite all of Singapore’s accumulated effort, our local smokers never gave up.

Stealthy and discreet in their movement, they never stopped smoking, even with the multitude of obstacles that continue to impede them.

And it seems that over in the horizon, hope might be present. To non-smokers, this hope might be nothing but an obstruction on the pavement, but to smokers…

It’s pretty much a haven fit for Gawd.

Lest you’re wondering what I’m talking about, well, I’m referring to these not-so-secret ‘smoking convention centres’:

Honest to goodness smoking cabins.

Smoking Cabins

If you’ve walked past Fusionopolis in One-North this month, you might’ve noticed this seemingly claustrophobia-inducing, curiously white cabin in the middle of nowhere, with the caption:

“Smoking Cabin SG”

And true to its name, it offers smokers a comfortable way to do their puffing rounds; and the best part?

It’s legal. All 100% of it.

How does the cabin work?

I know what you’re thinking.

“Everyone smoke in an air-conditioned cabin; confirm the whole room smell like smoke one what. Wtf which **** will go use it ****”

Well, if you’re a smoker who likes to smoke but dislikes smelling it himself/herself, you’ll be intrigued to know that the smoking cabin has a three-layered filtration system to purify the air in the air-conditioned room.

Such filtration system is apparently prevalent in countries like Japan, Denmark, Dubai and Kuwait too.

Here’s How It Works:

In essence, the system is fitted with automatic motion sensors which are activated once motion is detected.

The base of the filtering system is fitted with a centrifugal fan which acts as suction in pulling cigarette smoke into the filtering system.

Centrifugal fans are used in various devices including aircraft engine parts and vacuum cleaners. They are used to change the direction of airflow and displace air.

Once the cigarette smoke has entered the filtering system, it is passed through the following filters:

Pre Filter — Removes large dust particles
HEPA Filter — Removes small 0.3 micron particles. It acts like an N95 Mask.
Activated Carbon Filter — Removes tobacco smells and chemicals.

Ash Bins

And for those wondering about disposal avenues, there are two Ash Bins in the room which can contain up to 3,500 cigarette butts.

The Ash Bin, in particular, contains carbon dioxide, which is essentially a dense gas that does not flee from the bin easily. Additionally, it’s able to douse any lit cigarette bins when they are flung into the bin.

And It’s Air-Conditioned

The temperature in the cabin, on the other hand, is kept at 25°C to 27°, but the air-conditioner will be switched off between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.

And for those concerned about public org*es, the size of the cabin is around 4.8m², which can fit a maximum of 10 smokers at one time.

So yeah, while constant eye contact with that eyelash-fluttering gal might make things awkward after a while, one thing you can be sure of is that at the very least…

You won’t have to brush shoulders the whole time you’re in there.

Smoking Cabin SG

Smoking Cabin SG is developed by Stefen Choo, Director, SGC, and it utilises a Danish company’s filtering systems.

Incidentally, Southern Globe Corporation is a licensed distributor of Smoke Solution’s filtering systems.

“I am a father of two and there are many occasions where my family has been inconvenienced by the presence of cigarette smoke. I have always felt that there should be a better solution to contain cigarette smoke in Singapore. When I came across Smoke Solution’s Indoor Glass Cabins at an international trade show, I knew that I had to bring the technology to Singapore,” said Stefen Choo.

To date, there’s apparently an average of 100 daily users in the smoking cabin, with a whopping 1,150 cigarette butts collected in the ashbins on a previous occasion.

The creation of a smoking cabin takes around S$20,000 in resources and a monthly maintenance cost of around S$1,000.

Too far for you?

If you find One-North too far to indulge in some legal, cooling puffing action, don’t worry.

They’ve got you covered.

At the official launch on 21 May, SGC, the company behind Smoking Cabin SG, announced their intentions to install a total of 60 smoking cabins by the end of this year.

“We had to overcome many challenges to finally deploy our very first smoking cabin at Fusionopolis. Our plan is to deploy 60 Smoking Cabins all around the island by year-end. This technology has drastically transformed the issue of cigarette smoke worldwide. We are extremely excited to see what it can do for Singapore.” added Stefen Choo.

Well, to be fair, we’re excited too, Mr Choo.

No more second-hand smoke? Hell yeah!

You can watch how the cabin works here: