AN ACT Relating to smoking; adding a new chapter to Title 70 RCW; and prescribing penalties.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. This chapter shall be known as the smoking pollution control act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. (1) Because the smoking of tobacco or any other weed or plant is a danger to health and is a cause of material annoyance and discomfort to those who are present in confined places, the legislature declares that the purposes of this chapter are (a) to protect the public health and welfare by regulating smoking in the workplace and (b) to minimize the toxic effects of smoking in the workplace by requiring an employer to adopt a policy that will accommodate, insofar as possible, the preferences of nonsmokers and smokers and, if a satisfactory accommodation cannot be reached, to prohibit smoking in the workplace.

(2) This chapter is not intended to create any right to smoke or to impair or alter an employer's prerogative to prohibit smoking in the workplace. Rather, if an employer allows employees to smoke in the workplace, then this chapter requires (a) that the employer make accommodations for the preferences of both nonsmoking and smoking employees, and (b) if a satisfactory accommodation to all affected nonsmoking employees cannot be reached, that the employer prohibit smoking in the workplace.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. Unless the context clearly requires to the contrary, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter:

(1) "Person" means any individual person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company, organization, or legal entity of any kind.

(2) "Employer" means any person who employs the services of an individual person.

(3) "Employee" means any person who is employed by any employer in consideration for direct or indirect monetary wages or profit.

(4) "Workplace" means any enclosed area of a structure or portion thereof intended for occupancy by business entities.

(5) "Smoking" or "to smoke" means and includes inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying any lighted smoking equipment for tobacco or any other weed or plant.

(6) "Enclosed" means closed-in by a roof and four walls with appropriate openings for ingress and egress and is not intended to mean areas commonly described as public lobbies.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. (1) Each employer who operates a workplace in this state shall within three months of the effective date of this act adopt, implement, and maintain a written smoking policy that contains, at a minimum, the following provisions and requirements:

(a) Any nonsmoking employee may object to the employer about smoke in the workplace. Using already available means of ventilation or separation or partition of space, the employer shall attempt to reach a reasonable accommodation, insofar as possible, between the preferences of nonsmoking and smoking employees. However, an employer is not required by this chapter to make any expenditures or structural changes to accommodate the preferences of nonsmoking or smoking employees.

(b) If an accommodation that is satisfactory to all affected nonsmoking employees cannot be reached in any given workplace, the preferences of nonsmoking employees shall prevail and the employer shall prohibit smoking in that workplace. If the employer prohibits smoking in a workplace, the area in which smoking is prohibited shall be clearly marked with signs.

(2) The smoking policy shall be announced within three weeks of adoption to all employees working in workplaces in the state and posted conspicuously in all workplaces under the employer's jurisdiction.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. This chapter is not intended to regulate smoking in the following places and under the following conditions:

(1) A private home that may serve as a workplace;

(2) A workplace leased or rented by a sole independent contractor;

(3) A private enclosed workplace occupied exclusively by smokers, even though such a workplace may be visited by nonsmokers, excepting places in which smoking is prohibited by the state fire marshal or by other law, ordinance, or regulation.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. (1) The director of the department of labor and industries shall enforce section 4 of this act against violations by either of the following actions:

(a) Serving notice requiring the correction of any violation of this chapter;

(b) Calling upon the county prosecuting attorney to maintain an action for injunction to enforce this chapter, to cause the correction of any such violation, and for assessment and recovery of a civil penalty for the violation.

(2) An employer who violates section 4 of this act is liable for a civil penalty, not to exceed five hundred dollars, which penalty shall be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought in the name of the state in any court of competent jurisdiction. Each day the violation is committed or permitted to continue constitutes a separate offense and is punishable as such. Any penalty assessed and recovered in an action brought under this subsection shall be paid to the state general fund.

(3) In undertaking the enforcement of this chapter, the state is assuming an undertaking only to promote the general welfare. It is not assuming, nor is it imposing on its officers and employees, an obligation for breach of which it is liable in money damages to any person who claims that the breach proximately caused injury.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. Sections 1 through 6 of this act shall constitute a new chapter in Title 70 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.