Sonoma County Municipal Code Art. 1 Administrative

This chapter shall be known as the "Ordinance Regulating Smoking and Secondhand Smoke."

(Ord. No. 5953, § I, 10-4-2011.)

(a) Findings. The board of supervisors of the county does find that:

(1) Studies have shown tobacco smoke is a major contributor to air pollution and is detrimental to nonsmokers' health, welfare and comfort, especially to elderly people, children, individuals with cardiovascular disease, impaired respiratory function, or allergies, and those who suffer ill effects of breathing secondhand smoke may experience a loss of job productivity or may be forced to take periodic sick leave because of reactions to secondhand smoke.

(2) Scientific studies have concluded that tobacco use causes chronic lung disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer of the lungs, larynx, esophagus and mouth.

(3) In 2007, the World Health Organization estimated that by 2030, tobacco will account for 8.3 million deaths per year, will kill fifty (50) percent more people in 2015 than HIV/AIDS, and will be responsible for ten (10) percent of all deaths worldwide.

(4) In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than four hundred forty thousand (440,000) people die in the United States from tobacco-related diseases every year, making it the nation's leading cause of preventable death.

(5) The United States Surgeon General has concluded that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke and neither separating smokers from nonsmokers nor installing ventilation systems eliminates exposure to secondhand smoke.

(6) The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found secondhand smoke to be a risk to public health, and has classified secondhand smoke as a group A carcinogen, the most dangerous class of carcinogen.

(7) The California Air Resources Control Board has identified secondhand smoke as a toxic air contaminant.

(8) The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has included secondhand smoke on the Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, and other reproductive harm.

(9) Each year, primarily because of exposure to secondhand smoke, approximately three thousand (3,000) non-smokers in the United States die of lung cancer and more than forty-six thousand (46,000) die of heart disease.

(10) Exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk of coronary heart disease by approximately thirty (30) percent.

(11) Secondhand smoke exposure elevates the risks of low birth weight and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome for infants of mothers who smoke.

(12) Secondhand smoke exposure causes as many as three hundred thousand (300,000) children in the United States to suffer from lower respiratory tract infections each year, exacerbates childhood asthma, and increases the prevalence of fluid in the middle ear, a sign of chronic middle ear disease.

(13) In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that the total annual economic burden of smoking in the United States was approximately $193 billion.

(14) From 2001 to 2004, average annual health care expenditures attributable to smoking in the United States were approximately $96 billion.

(15) In 2004, the estimated medical and economic costs to non-smokers suffering from lung cancer or heart disease caused by secondhand smoke totaled approximately $6 billion in the United States.

(16) In 2004 alone, the total adult health-related cost of smoking in California was estimated to be five hundred dollars ($500.00) per resident or three thousand four hundred dollars ($3,400.00) per smoker, for a total of nearly $18.1 billion in smoking-related costs for the year.

(17) According to one study, California's Tobacco Control Program has saved the state and its residents approximately $86 billion in health care expenditures between the program's inception in 1989 and 2004, with savings growing over time.

(18) A survey conducted by the Tobacco Control Program in December 2010 revealed that Sonoma County had the highest smoking rate in the Bay Area, indicating that sixteen and four-tenths (16.4) percent of Sonoma County residents smoke.

(19) With certain exceptions, state law prohibits smoking inside an enclosed place of employment.

(20) State law prohibits public school students from smoking or using tobacco products while on campus, while attending school-sponsored activities, or while under the supervision or control of school district employees.

(21) State law prohibits smoking in playground and tot lots and within twenty (20) feet of the main entrances and exits of public buildings while expressly authorizing local communities to enact additional restrictions.

Therefore the board of supervisors finds it in the public interest to (1) protect the public health and welfare by prohibiting or limiting smoking in public places as hereinafter set forth; and (2) to strike a reasonable balance between the need of persons who smoke and the need of non-smokers to breathe smoke-free air, and to recognize that, where those needs conflict, the need to breathe smoke-free air has priority.

(b) Purpose. The purpose of this chapter shall be to protect the public against the health hazards and harmful effects of exposure to smoking and secondhand smoke.

(Ord. No. 5953, § I, 10-4-2011.)

The following words and phrases, whenever used in this chapter, shall be construed as defined in this section, unless it is apparent from the context that they have a different meaning.

"Business" means any sole proprietorship, joint venture, corporation or other business entity.

"County" means the County of Sonoma, State of California.

"Designated smoking area" means a designated portion of an unenclosed area where smoking may be allowed. The smoking area must meet all of the following criteria:

(a) Must be located at least twenty-five feet (25') in any direction from any operable doorway, window, vent or other opening into an enclosed area;

(b) Must be located at least twenty-five feet (25') from unenclosed recreational areas that are primarily used by children;

(c) Must be located at least twenty-five feet (25') from unenclosed areas that have improvements that facilitate physical activity including playgrounds, tennis courts, swimming pools, walking paths and sports fields;

(d) Must be no more than five percent (5%) of the total unenclosed area for which it is designated; and

(e) Must be clearly identified by conspicuous signs, and have ash receptacles, such as ash trays or ash cans, within the area for proper disposal of smoking waste.

"Dining area" means any area, including picnic areas and sidewalks, which is available to or customarily used by the general public or an employee, which is designed, designated or regularly used for consuming food or drink.

"Electronic smoking device" means an electronic and/or battery-operated device, the use of which may resemble smoking, which can be used to deliver an inhaled dose of nicotine or other substances. "Electronic smoking device" includes any such device, whether manufactured, distributed, marketed, or sold as an electronic cigarette, an electronic cigar, an electronic cigarillo, an electronic pipe, an electronic hookah, or any other product name or descriptor. "Electronic smoking device" does not include any product specifically approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the use in the mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease.

"Electronic smoking device paraphernalia" means cartridges, cartomizers, e-liquid, smoke juice, tips, atomizers, electronic smoking device batteries, electronic smoking device chargers, and any other item designed for the preparation, storing, charging, or use of electronic smoking devices.

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

"Employer" means any person, partnership, business, corporation, including municipal corporation or nonprofit entity, who employs the services of one (1) or more employees, including owner-operated entities.

"Enclosed area" means all space between a floor and ceiling where the space is closed in on all sides by solid walls or windows that extend from the floor to the ceiling. An enclosed area may have openings for ingress and egress, such as doorways or passageways. An enclosed area includes all areas within that space, such as hallways and areas screened by partitions that do not extend to the ceiling or are not solid.

"Place of employment" means any area under the control of an employer that an employee or the public may have cause to enter in the normal course of operations, regardless of the hours of operation. Places of employment include, but are not limited to, indoor work areas, bars, restaurants, at least seventy-five percent (75%) of the guest rooms in any hotel and motel, vehicles used for business purposes, taxis, employee lounges and break rooms, conference and banquet rooms, bingo and gaming facilities, long-term health care facilities, warehouses, retail or wholesale tobacco shops, and private residences used as licensed child care or health care facilities when employees, children or patients are present during business hours. The places specified in subdivisions (d)(1)-(8), (12)-(14) of the Labor Code section 6404.5 are places of employment for purposes of this division and are regulated as specified in this chapter. The places specified in subdivision (d)(9)-(11) of the Labor Code are not places of employment for purposes of this chapter.

"Public event" means any event on public or private property open to the general public regardless of any fee or age requirement, including, but not limited to, fairs, festivals, parades, farmers markets and concerts. This does not prohibit the establishment of a designated smoking area as defined in this section.

"Reasonable distance" means a distance that ensures that occupants of an area in which smoking is prohibited are not exposed to smoke created by smokers outside the area. This distance shall be a minimum of twenty-five (25) feet.

"Recreational area" means any unenclosed area, owned or operated by the county, open to the general public for recreational purposes, including, but not limited to, parks, picnic areas, playgrounds, parking lots, sports athletic facilities, walking paths, gardens, hiking trails, campgrounds, bike paths, horseback riding trails, athletic fields, skateboard parks and beaches.

"Service area" means any area, enclosed or unenclosed, designed to be regularly used by one (1) or more persons to receive or wait to receive a service or make a transaction whether or not such service includes the exchange of money, including, for example, ATMS, bank teller windows, public telephones, ticket lines, bus stops and cab stands.

"Smoke" means the gases, particles, or vapors released into the air as a result of combustion, electrical ignition or vaporization, when the apparent or usual purpose of the combustion, electrical ignition or vaporization is human consumption of the byproducts. The term "smoke" includes, but is not limited to, tobacco smoke and vapors from electronic smoking device paraphernalia. "Smoke" does not include the byproducts of any device or product that has been approved for therapeutic purposes by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). "Smoking" means igniting, inhaling, exhaling, burning, vaping, operating, or carrying any lighted cigar, cigarette, pipe, hookah, electronic smoking devices or tobacco product.

"Tobacco product" includes any product or formulation of matter containing biologically active amounts of nicotine or synthetic nicotine that is manufactured, sold, offered for sale, or otherwise distributed with the expectation that the product or matter will be introduced into the human body, including but not limited to electronic smoking devices.

"Unenclosed area" means any area that is not an enclosed area.

(Ord. No. 6078, § I(a), 6-24-2014; Ord. No. 5953, § I, 10-4-2011.)

(a) A person who owns, manages, operates or otherwise controls the use of any place where smoking is prohibited by this chapter may not knowingly or intentionally permit smoking in those places. For purposes of this chapter, a person has acted knowingly or intentionally if he or she has not taken the following actions to prevent smoking by another person: (1) requested that a person who is smoking refrain from smoking; and (2) requested that a person who is smoking leave the place if the person refuses to stop smoking after being asked to stop. This chapter does not require physically ejecting a person from a place or taking steps to prevent smoking under circumstances that would involve risk of physical harm. Any owner, manager, operator or employer of any establishment subject to this chapter shall have the responsibility to inform any apparent violator, about any smoking restrictions in said establishment.

(b) The director of the department of health services, or his/her designee, may enforce this chapter. In addition to other remedies provided by this article or by other law, any violation of this chapter may be remedied by a civil action brought by the county, including, for example, administrative or judicial nuisance abatement proceedings, civil or criminal code enforcement proceedings, and suits for injunctive relief. In any such action, the county may seek reimbursement for the costs of any investigation, inspection or monitoring survey which led to the establishment of the violation, and for the reasonable costs of preparing and bringing administrative action under this article. The foregoing remedy shall be deemed nonexclusive, cumulative and in addition to any other remedy the county may have at law or in equity, including but not limited to injunctive relief to prevent violations of this chapter.

(c) Any person who desires to register a complaint under this chapter may initiate the complaint by notifying the director of the department of health services or his/her designee.

(d) A violation of this chapter is a public nuisance.

(Ord. No. 5953, § I, 10-4-2011.)