One of the most heavily debated topics in American society today is smoking in public places. Many bar owners feel trapped between customers who want to smoke and those who complain about tobacco smoke and smell. If they ban smoking in their bar, they are certain to lose some customers. Allowing smoking will also certainly offend non-smoking loyal patrons who are allergic or find secondhand tobacco smoke offensive and irritating. Either way, the bottom line suffers.

A viable alternative to this dilemma is a high quality commercial air cleaner. When discussing air purification in bars and restaurants, ventilation is often confused with commercial air cleaners. They are not the same thing. Ventilation systems simply move the air across the room and up into ceiling vents. This exposes patrons and employees to the smoke and odor as it wafts through the bar on its way to the vents. A good commercial air cleaner uses strong airflow to draw the contaminated air into the unit, removing the harmful particles and odor with electrostatic collector plates. Not only are harmful airborne particles and dust removed from tobacco smoke, but the odor associated with tobacco smoke is neutralized by a cartridge.

Unlike pricey ventilation systems, a high performance commercial air cleaner uses a four stage filtration concept: a pre-filter to remove the larger particles, ionizing wires, a collection cell and an odor neutralizing cartridge. Regarding the use of ventilation systems in bars, James Repace, an adjunct professor at Tufts University School of Medicine recently said: “These exotic ventilation systems give restaurant and bar owners a false sense of security."

For bar owners who presently allow smoking, it is important to remember that approximately three-quarters of Americans are non-smokers. This is a huge amount of potential income a bar owners risks alienating by having a smoke filled bar. Many bartenders lament losing loyal customers because they were sick and tired of going home smelling like a used ashtray.

A primary consideration when deciding on a commercial air cleaner is the amount of air it moves. Choosing a model with a high CFM (cubic feet per minute) rate will insure that the unit will produce enough air changes per hour to provide fresh, clean smelling air in all sections of the bar.