What is the law behind the California No Smoking Sign?
California Labor Code §6404.5 (8 CCR §5148) prohibits an employer from knowingly or intentionally permitting the smoking of tobacco products at a place of employment or in an enclosed space.
Are employers required to post the California No Smoking Sign?
The law states that an employer or owner-operated business is not in violation of the law if he or she has taken the following reasonable steps to prevent smoking:
- Posted clear and prominent signs stating “No smoking” at each entrance to the building or structure, and
- Has requested, when appropriate, that a person who is smoking refrain from smoking in the enclosed workplace or owner-operated business.
What does the law mean by?
- “Enclosed space” includes covered parking lots, lobbies, lounges, waiting areas, elevators, stairwells, and restrooms that are a structural part of the building.
- A “place of employment” does not include:
- Twenty percent of the guestroom accommodations in a hotel, motel, or similar lodging establishment.
- Retail or wholesale tobacco shops and private smokers’ lounges.
- Cabs of motortrucks
- Theatrical production sites, if smoking is an integral part of the story.
- Medical research or treatment sites, if smoking is integral to the enterprise
- Private residences, except for private residences licensed as family day care homes.
- Patient smoking areas in long-term health care facilities.
- “Smoking” means inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying any lighted or heated cigar, cigarette, or pipe, or any other lighted or heated tobacco or plant product intended for inhalation, whether natural or synthetic, in any manner or in any form.
- “Tobacco product” means any of the following:
- A product containing, made, or derived from tobacco or nicotine that is intended for human consumption, whether smoked, heated, chewed, absorbed, dissolved, inhaled, snorted, sniffed, or ingested by any other means, including cigarettes, cigars, little cigars, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco, or snuff.
- An electronic device that delivers nicotine or other vaporized liquids to the person inhaling from the device, including, but not limited to, an electronic cigarette, cigar, pipe, or hookah.
- Any component, part, or accessory of a tobacco product.
How is the law enforced?
A violation of the prohibition is an infraction, punishable by a fine not to exceed one hundred dollars ($100) for a first violation, two hundred dollars ($200) for a second violation within one year, and five hundred dollars ($500) for a third and for each subsequent violation within one year. The law is enforced by local law enforcement agencies, including local health departments.
Employers can protect themselves from citations and penalties by posting the California No Smoking Sign at building entrances and enclosed space entryways, closely monitoring the worksite for smoking residue, and requesting any person who is observed engaging prohibited conduct to discontinue from same.