BILL REQ. #:  H-1085.2 

Read first time 01/27/2005.   Referred to Committee on Health Care.

     AN ACT Relating to designated smoking area requirements; amending RCW 70.160.040 and 70.160.050; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   It is the intent of the legislature to strengthen statewide policy relating to indoor air standards, while protecting the rights, interests, health, and choices based on credible scientific findings. It is too easy to unfairly burden local economies through patchwork policy. State law preempts local options.
     Local governments may establish standards consistent with this act, but may not exceed state law nor eliminate choices as offered by state law.

Sec. 2   RCW 70.160.040 and 1985 c 236 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) A smoking area may be designated in a public place by the owner or, in the case of a leased or rented space, by the lessee or other person in charge except in:
     (a) Elevators; buses, except for private hire; streetcars; taxis, except those clearly and visibly designated by the owner to permit smoking; public areas of retail stores and lobbies of financial institutions; office reception areas and waiting rooms of any building owned or leased by the state of Washington or by any city, county, or other municipality in the state of Washington; museums; public meetings or hearings; classrooms and lecture halls of schools, colleges, and universities; and the seating areas and aisle ways which are contiguous to seating areas of concert halls, theaters, auditoriums, exhibition halls, and indoor sports arenas; and
     (b) Hallways of health care facilities, with the exception of nursing homes, and lobbies of concert halls, theaters, auditoriums, exhibition halls, and indoor sports arenas, if the area is not physically separated. Owners or other persons in charge are not required to incur any expense to make structural or other physical modifications in providing these areas.
     Except as provided in other provisions of this chapter, no public place, other than a bar, tavern, bowling alley, card room, tobacco shop, ((or)) restaurant, or licensed charitable bingo hall, may be designated as a smoking area in its entirety. If a bar, tobacco shop, or restaurant is designated as a smoking area in its entirety, this designation shall be posted conspicuously on all entrances normally used by the public.
     (2) Where smoking areas are designated, ((existing)) physical barriers ((and)) or ventilation systems shall be used to minimize the ((toxic)) effect of environmental tobacco smoke in adjacent nonsmoking areas. Barriers or ventilation systems shall be used to provide indoor air that meets the following standards with respect to environmental tobacco smoke constituents:
     (a) In nonsmoking areas, vapor phase nicotine as measured by an eight-hour time weighted average shall not exceed one hundred micrograms per cubic meter of air or twenty percent of the current United States department of labor, occupational safety and health administration permissible exposure limit, whichever is less, and carbon monoxide as measured by an eight-hour time weighted average shall not exceed forty parts per million or eighty percent of the current United States department of labor, occupational safety and health administration permissible exposure limit, whichever is less.
     (b) In designated smoking areas, vapor phase nicotine as measured by an eight-hour time weighted average shall not exceed two hundred micrograms per cubic meter of air or forty percent of the current United States department of labor, occupational safety and health administration permissible exposure limit, whichever is less, and carbon monoxide as measured by an eight-hour time weighted average shall not exceed fifty parts per million or one hundred percent of the current United States department of labor, occupational safety and health administration permissible exposure limit, whichever is less.
     (3) Managers of restaurants who choose to provide smoking areas shall designate an adequate amount of seating to meet the demands of restaurant patrons who wish to smoke. Owners of restaurants are not required to incur any expense to make structural or other physical modifications in providing these areas as long as the indoor air in the facility meets or exceeds the standards specified in subsection (2) of this section. Restaurant patrons shall be informed that separate smoking and nonsmoking sections are available.
     (4) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, a facility or area may be designated in its entirety as a nonsmoking area by the owner or other person in charge.
     (5) Persons under the age of eighteen are prohibited from entering the designated smoking area of a bar, tavern, bowling alley, bingo hall, card room, private facility, or other public venue. Employees under the age of eighteen are prohibited from performing duties in designated smoking areas.
     (6) A proceeding brought by a local or state agency to enforce this section must include specification of contemporaneous onsite testing for the described facility or business establishment that credibly demonstrates indoor air at the business or facility fails to meet the standards set forth in this section.

Sec. 3   RCW 70.160.050 and 1985 c 236 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Owners, or in the case of a leased or rented space the lessee or other person in charge, of a place regulated under this chapter shall make every reasonable effort to prohibit smoking in public places by posting signs prohibiting or permitting smoking as appropriate under this chapter. Signs shall be posted conspicuously at each building entrance. In the case of retail stores and retail service establishments, signs shall be posted conspicuously at each entrance and in prominent locations throughout the place. The boundary between a nonsmoking area and a smoking permitted area shall be clearly designated so that persons may differentiate between the two areas.
     (2) An employer shall disclose to prospective employees that all or a portion of the establishment that prospective employees would work at is a designated smoking area. An employer shall disclose to prospective employees under age eighteen that they are prohibited by state law from performing duties in any designated smoking area. Federal and state health and safety worker right-to-know laws and manufacturer and employer suggested operating and safety requirements shall apply.