Smoking Cabin SG: the booth said to turn cigarette smoke into clean air

Cigarette smoke contributes to passive smoking. Harmful to health, and to that of the youngest in particular, it is one of the scourges of modern society. In Singapore, however, an idea is being trialled to turn cigarette smoke into clean air.

When aeronautics comes to the aid of the environment

Southern Globe Corporation is a logistics and sales company specialising in aeronautics. A few months ago the firm launched a brand-new concept called Smoking Cabin SG: a shelter for smokers which, the company says, turns cigarette smoke into clean air.

These smoking cabins have been installed in front of Fusionopolis, on the pavement of a Singapore street. They take in smokers for their cigarette break, so that the smoke held inside the cube bothers no one outside. Given the response, Southern Globe Corporation decided to develop 60 further prototypes and roll them out around the island by the end of 2019.

But how does the cabin work?

The idea is fairly simple, although someone had to think of it. The cabins’ filtering system has 3 filters intended to stop harmful tobacco particles. The first two remove various particles such as dust and micron-sized matter. The third is an activated carbon filter, which removes chemicals as well as the intrusive smell of tobacco smoke. A centrifugal fan draws the smoke in before it passes along the filtration duct. By the end of that run, according to the company, the air is clean again.

Since the environment is central to society today, the filtering system does not run continuously. It starts up only when a smoker enters the booth, triggered by a presence detector. In the same way, it stops after 15 minutes of inactivity inside the cabin, as do the lights, which switch off after 10 minutes. Finally, the air conditioning is stopped automatically between 10pm and 6am.