§ 18-79. Smoking in public facilities.

(a)

Findings and intent. The city council does hereby find that:

(1)

Numerous studies have found that tobacco smoke is a major contributor to indoor air pollution, and that breathing secondhand smoke (also known as environmental tobacco smoke) is a cause of disease in healthy nonsmokers, including heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease, and lung cancer. The National Cancer Institute determined in 1999, that secondhand smoke is responsible for the early deaths of up to sixty-five thousand (65,000) Americans annually. (National Cancer Institute (NCI), "Health effects of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke: the report of the California Environmental Protection Agency. Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph 10," Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute (NCI), August 1999.)

(2)

The Public Health Service's National Toxicology Program has listed secondhand smoke as a known carcinogen. (Environmental Health Information Service (EHIS), "Environmental tobacco smoke: first listed in the Ninth Report on Carcinogens," U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Public Health Service, National Toxicology Program, 2000.)

(3)

Secondhand smoke is particularly hazardous to elderly people, individuals with cardiovascular disease, and individuals with impaired respiratory function, including asthmatics and those with obstructive airway disease. Children exposed to secondhand smoke have an increased risk of asthma, respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome, developmental abnormalities, and cancer. (California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal EPA), "Health effects of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke", Tobacco Control 6(4): 346-353, Winter, 1997.)

(4)

The Americans With Disabilities Act, which requires that disabled persons have access to public places and workplaces, deems impaired respiratory function to be a disability. (Daynard, R.A., "Environmental tobacco smoke and the Americans with Disabilities Act," Nonsmokers' Voice 15(1): 8-9.)

(5)

The U.S. Surgeon General has determined that the simple separation of smokers and nonsmokers within the same air space may reduce, but does not eliminate, the exposure of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke. (Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, 1986.) The Environmental Protection Agency has determined that secondhand smoke cannot be reduced to safe levels by high rates of ventilation. Air cleaners, which are only capable of filtering the particulate matter and odors in smoke, do not eliminate the known toxins in secondhand smoke. (Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "Indoor air facts no. 5: environmental tobacco smoke," Washington, D.C.: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), June 1989.)

(6)

A significant amount of secondhand smoke exposure occurs in the workplace. Employees who work in smoke-filled offices suffer a twenty-five (25) percent to fifty (50) percent higher risk of heart attack and higher rates of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer, as well as increased acute respiratory disease and measurable decrease in lung function. (Pitsavos, C.; Panagiotakos, D.B.; Chrysohoou, C.; Skoumas, J.; Tzioumis, K.; Stefanadis, C.; Toutouzas, P., "Association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and the development of acute coronary syndromes: the CARDIO2000 case-control study," Tobacco Control 11(3): 220-225, September 2002.)

(7)

Smoke-filled workplaces result in higher worker absenteeism due to respiratory disease, lower productivity, higher cleaning and maintenance costs, increased health insurance rates, and increased liability claims for diseases related to exposure to secondhand smoke. ("The high price of cigarette smoking," Business and Health 15(8), Supplement A: 6-9, August 1997.)

(8)

Accordingly, the city council finds and declares that the purposes of this section are to protect the public health and welfare by prohibiting smoking in all public facilities in the City of Fitzgerald; to guarantee the right of nonsmokers to breathe smoke-free air; and to recognize that the need to breathe smoke-free air shall have priority over the desire to smoke.

(b)

Definitions. The following words and phrases, whenever used in this section, shall be construed as defined in this section:

Dining area means any enclosed area containing a counter or tables upon which food or snacks are served.

Employee means a person who is employed by an employer in consideration for direct or indirect monetary wages or profit, and a person who volunteers his or her services for a nonprofit entity.

Employer means a person, business, partnership, association, corporation, including a municipal corporation, trust, or nonprofit entity that employs the services of one (1) or more individual persons.

Enclosed means all space between a floor and ceiling that is enclosed on all sides by solid walls or windows (exclusive of doorways), which extend from the floor to the ceiling.

Health care facility means an institution providing care or treatment of diseases, whether physical, mental, or emotional, or other medical, physiological, or psychological conditions, including but not limited to, hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals or other clinics, nursing homes, homes for the aging or chronically ill, and laboratories. This definition shall include all waiting rooms, hallways, private rooms, semiprivate rooms, and wards within health care facilities.

Place of employment means an area under the control of a public employer that employees normally frequent during the course of employment, including, but not limited to, work areas, employee lounges, restrooms, conference rooms, meeting rooms, classrooms, employee cafeterias, hallways, and vehicles.

Public facility means a building, including a part of a building, or vehicle owned, leased, or operated by the City of Fitzgerald.

Service line means an indoor line in which one (1) or more persons are waiting for or receiving service of any kind, whether or not the service involves the exchange of money.

Smoking means inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying any lighted cigar, cigarette, pipe, weed, plant, or other combustible substance in any manner or in any form.

Sports arena means sports pavilions, stadiums, gymnasiums, health spas, boxing arenas, swimming pools, roller and ice rinks, bowling alleys and other similar places where members of the general public assemble either to engage in physical exercise, participate in athletic competition or witness sports or other events.

(c)

Prohibition on smoking in public facilities. Smoking shall be prohibited in all enclosed public facilities in the City of Fitzgerald. This prohibition shall apply to all areas in those facilities, whether used as a place of employment or as a place for the conduct of public business, and shall include, without limitation, the following places:

(1)

Aquariums, galleries, libraries, and museums.

(2)

Child care and adult day care facilities.

(3)

Convention facilities.

(4)

Dining areas.

(5)

Elevators.

(6)

Facilities primarily used for exhibiting a motion picture, stage, drama, lecture, musical recital, or other similar performance.

(7)

Health care facilities.

(8)

Polling places.

(9)

Public transportation facilities, including buses and taxicabs, under the authority of the City of Fitzgerald, and ticket, boarding, and waiting areas of public transit depots.

(10)

Restrooms, lobbies, reception areas, hallways, and other common-use areas.

(11)

Rooms, chambers, places of meeting or public assembly, including school buildings, under the control of an agency, board, commission, committee or council of the city or a political subdivision of the state when a public meeting is in progress, to the extent the place is subject to the jurisdiction of the City of Fitzgerald.

(12)

Service lines.

(13)

Sports arenas, including enclosed places in outdoor arenas.

(d)

Reasonable distance. Smoking is prohibited within a reasonable distance of twenty-five (25) feet outside an enclosed area where smoking is prohibited, so as to ensure that tobacco smoke does not enter the area through entrances, windows, ventilation systems, or other means.

(e)

Where smoking not regulated. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section to the contrary, the following areas shall be exempt from the provisions of subsection (c) hereof:

(1)

Private residences.

(2)

Private and semiprivate rooms in nursing homes and longterm care facilities that are occupied by one (1) or more persons, all of whom are smokers and have requested in writing to be placed in a room where smoking is permitted.

(f)

Posting of signs.

(1)

"No Smoking" signs or the international "No Smoking" symbol (consisting of a pictorial representation of a burning cigarette enclosed in a red circle with a red bar across it) shall be clearly and conspicuously posted in every public facility where smoking is prohibited by this section, by the owner, operator, manager or other person in control of that facility.

(2)

Every public facility where smoking is prohibited by this section, including every dining area within such a facility, shall have posted at every entrance a conspicuous sign clearly stating that smoking is prohibited.

(3)

All ashtrays and other smoking paraphernalia shall be removed from any area where smoking is prohibited by this section by the owner, operator, manager or other person having control of the area.

(g)

Nonretaliation. No person or employer shall discharge, refuse to hire, or in any manner retaliate against an employee, applicant for employment, or customer because that employee, applicant, or customer exercises any rights afforded by this section or reports or attempts to prosecute a violation of this section.

(h)

Enforcement.

(1)

This section shall be enforced by the city manager or an authorized designee.

(2)

Any citizen who desires to register a complaint under this section may initiate enforcement with the city manager.

(3)

An owner, manager, operator, or employee of a public facility regulated by this section shall inform persons violating this section of the appropriate provisions thereof.

(4)

Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, an employee or private citizen may bring legal action to enforce this section.

(i)

Violations and penalties.

(1)

A person who smokes in an area where smoking is prohibited by the provisions of this section shall be guilty of an infraction, punishable by a fine not less than fifty dollars ($50.00), but no more than one hundred dollars ($100.00), per offense.

(2)

A person who owns, manages, operates, or otherwise controls a public facility and who fails to comply with the provisions of this section shall be guilty of an infraction, punishable by:

a.

A fine not exceeding one hundred dollars ($100.00) for a first violation.

b.

A fine not exceeding two hundred dollars ($200.00) for a second violation within one (1) year.

c.

A fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00) for each additional violation within one (1) year.

(3)

Each day on which a violation of this section occurs shall be considered a separate and distinct violation.

(j)

Public education. The city manager shall engage in a continuing program to explain and clarify the purposes and requirements of this section to citizens affected by it, and to guide owners, operators, and managers in their compliance with it. The program may include publication of a brochure explaining the provisions of this section.

(k)

Other applicable laws. This section shall not be interpreted or construed to permit smoking where it is otherwise restricted by other applicable laws.

(l)

Liberal construction. This section shall be liberally construed so as to further its purposes.

(Ord. No. 05-1362, § 1, 12-12-05)

State law reference

Smoking in public places prohibited, O.C.G.A. § 16-12-2.