It is possible to protect against disasters such as the Hindenburg’s; that particular one was considered a fluke and a consequence of bad design. Hydrogen lift can be made very safe — but I personally would still not want to see an open flame such as a cigarette near a huge bag full of boom, and alarmist watchdog organizations of Takako’s would find much to cavil about.

EDIT: Or to put it a bit less flippantly, enough people in the Core Economic Zone smoke (imagine one of those American movies from the 1940s where plumes of cigarette smoke constantly drift lazily across the screen), and are adamant about not being told where they can and can not smoke, that airship lines have invested significant time and effort making airships safe to smoke in.