About Cigarette Smoke Detectors

Function

• Cigarette smoke detectors sense things that are specific to cigarette smoke. They do not require a certain volume of smoke to go off. Cigarette smoke detectors compare clean air standards with those of the environment in which the detector is mounted. If the results of the comparison indicate that the air has been polluted with cigarette smoke, then the alarm will sound.

Features

• Cigarette smoke detectors come with many accessories. Some flash bright lights when cigarette smoke is detected. Others sound a loud alarm. Still others transmit wireless pages to a preset location, such as an administrative computer, notifying a person in authority that someone has "lit up" and the location.

Types

• Cigarette smoke detectors come in a variety of models. Some are simply highly refined smoke detectors that can sense very small amounts of smoke even in a large room. Others actually sense the ultraviolet light emitted when a match or lighter is used to light the cigarette.

Effects

• Smoking indoors is a serious health and safety risk for everyone involved. Not only are the odds of a fire much greater when cigarette smoking is allowed inside, but second hand smoke can cause serious health complaints for smokers and non-smokers. Cigarette smoke detectors are usually used as deterrents. Many high schools use them to cut down on teen smoking in bathrooms and even outside in covered areas. Businesses use them to the same end in employee and customer washrooms. Eliminating the option of smoking inside can lower insurance costs and cut down on fire risks dramatically.

Misconceptions

• Many people think that their standard smoke alarms will sense the presence of cigarette smoke. After all, sometimes they even go off before anything has burned on the stove! However, smoke alarms are generally not refined enough to sense cigarette smoke reliably, and a smoke alarm will not consistently indicate the presence of cigarette smoke in a room.