home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- @075 CHAP 11
-
- ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
- │ CALIFORNIA SMOKE-FREE WORKPLACE RULES │
- └───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
-
- Beginning January 1, 1995, California law (Assembly Bill 13)
- prohibits smoking in most enclosed workplaces in the state.
- An enclosed workplace is broadly defined to include almost
- any place of employment that has a ceiling and four walls,
- such as offices or restaurants. The state law provides the
- following exemptions for employers (but doesn't prevent such
- regulations from being promulgated by local governments):
-
- . Small businesses with 5 or fewer employees are exempt,
- if they meet all four of the following conditions:
-
- - A smoking area must not be accessible to minors;
- - Air from any smoking areas must be vented directly
- to outside the building;
- - Employees may not be required to work in smoking
- areas against their will; and
- - The employer must comply with all applicable federal
- and state ventilation standards.
-
- . Hotels and motels may allow smoking in up to 65 percent
- of their guest rooms. Smoking is also permitted in
- designated portions of hotel or motel lobbies (up to
- 25% of the entire space in large lobbies).
-
- . Bars, taverns and gaming clubs are exempted from the
- new rules until January 1, 1997, unless federal or state
- agencies set smoke-limited standards for them prior to
- such date.
-
- . Smoking need not be banned in meeting and banquet rooms
- in hotels, motels, restaurants, and convention centers,
- except when used for exhibit purposes or when meals are
- being served. During such times, smoking may still be
- allowed in anterooms or corridors (if no employee is
- stationed in such places).
-
- . Smoking is permitted in warehouses with more than 100,000
- square feet of floor space and 20 or fewer full-time em-
- ployees, but any office space within a warehouse must be
- kept smoke-free.
-
- . Tobacco shops and attached private smokers' lounges are
- exempted from the no-smoking rules.
-
- . "Break" rooms for employees that are designated for smo-
- king are allowed, subject to strict ventilation rules,
- like those for small businesses.
-
- . Smoking is allowed in truck cabs and tractors, except
- when a nonsmoking employee is present.
-
- . Various other exempt places include private residences
- (except when used as a licensed child-care facility),
- theatrical production sites (if smoking is critical to
- the production), medical research or treatment sites
- (if necessary for research), and patient smoking areas
- of long-term healthcare facilities.
-
-
- EMPLOYER REQUIREMENTS
- ---------------------
- If an employer designates a smoking area, signs are to be
- posted at each building entrance, stating that "Smoking is
- Prohibited Except in Designated Areas." Or, if a building
- is to be entirely smoke-free, the employer must clearly
- post "No Smoking" signs at all building entrances. If a
- non-employee is seen smoking in an enclosed work area where
- smoking is not permitted, the employer must ask that person
- to refrain from doing so, according to the California
- Department of Health Services.
-
-