That’s excessive. You don’t need entirely separate HVAC systems. You just need a small pressure differential. Wall in the smoking area and add an extra fan blowing to exhaust. The pressure difference means air flows in when the door opens rather than out.
There was a restaurant in my area that did that once upon a time before the smoking section was abolished. It was actually pretty effective.
My guess is that regulations were pretty strict there. I was a waiter at the time and that was the only restaurant with a smoking section I ever knew about.
The first smoking bans were soft, some non-smoking bar and restaurant staff got lung cancer and sued their employers for not protecting them from smoke
Those sort of places banned smoking inside to avoid similar litigation
Some made more effective barriers between smoking and non-smoking sections, and only put smoking staff on the smoking side
That’s excessive. You don’t need entirely separate HVAC systems. You just need a small pressure differential. Wall in the smoking area and add an extra fan blowing to exhaust. The pressure difference means air flows in when the door opens rather than out.
There was a restaurant in my area that did that once upon a time before the smoking section was abolished. It was actually pretty effective.
My guess is that regulations were pretty strict there. I was a waiter at the time and that was the only restaurant with a smoking section I ever knew about.
The first smoking bans were soft, some non-smoking bar and restaurant staff got lung cancer and sued their employers for not protecting them from smoke
Those sort of places banned smoking inside to avoid similar litigation
Some made more effective barriers between smoking and non-smoking sections, and only put smoking staff on the smoking side