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 Board of Commissioners |
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Calhoun County Smoking Regulation
CALHOUN COUNTY
REGULATION ELIMINATING SMOKING
IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE WORKSITES AND PUBLIC PLACES,
NOT INCLUDING BARS & RESTAURANTS
Sec. 1000. Title
This article shall be known as the Calhoun County Clean Indoor Air
Regulation.
Sec. 1001. Authority
This regulation is hereby adopted pursuant to authority conferred
upon local health departments by the Michigan Public Health Code, 1978
P.A. 368, as amended.
Sec. 1002. Jurisdiction and Administration
- This regulation shall have effect throughout Calhoun
County in all areas incorporated and unincorporated, which includes
cities, villages, and townships.
- The Health Officer shall have responsibility for
administering and enforcing this regulation, including all amendments
hereafter adopted unless otherwise specifically stated.
Sec. 1003. Purpose
- Calhoun County hereby finds and declares that:
- The 2006 U.S. Surgeon General's Report, The Health Consequences
of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, has concluded that (1)
secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in
children and adults who do not smoke; (2) children exposed to
secondhand smoke are at an increased risk for sudden infant death
syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory problems, ear infections, and
asthma attacks, and that smoking by parents causes respiratory
symptoms and slows lung growth in their children; (3) exposure of
adults to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the
cardiovascular system and causes coronary heart disease and lung
cancer; (4) there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand
smoke; (5) establishing smoke-free workplaces is the only effective
way to ensure that secondhand smoke exposure does not occur in the
workplace, because ventilation and other air cleaning technologies
cannot completely control for exposure of nonsmokers to secondhand
smoke; and (6) evidence from peer-reviewed studies shows that
smoke-free policies and laws do not have an adverse economic impact
on the hospitality industry. (U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco
Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General. U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion,
Office on Smoking and Health, 2006.)
- 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 approximately 53,000 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.)
- The Public Health Service's National Toxicology Program (NTP)
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, NTP, 2000;
reaffirmed by the NTP in subsequent reports on carcinogens, 2003,
2005.)
- Based on a finding by the California Environmental Protection
Agency in 2005, the California Air Resources Board has determined
that secondhand smoke is a toxic air contaminant, finding that
exposure to secondhand smoke has serious health effects, including
low birth-weight babies; sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS);
increased respiratory infections in children; asthma in children and
adults; lung cancer, sinus cancer, and breast cancer in younger,
premenopausal women; heart disease; and death. (Appendix II Findings
of the Scientific Review Panel: “Findings of the Scientific Review
Panel on Proposed Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a
Toxic Air Contaminant as adopted at the Panel's June 24, 2005
Meeting,” California Air Resources Board (ARB), September 12, 2005.)
- There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
(Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “Respiratory health effects
of passive smoking: lung cancer and other disorders, the report of
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.” Smoking and Tobacco
Control Monograph 4, Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health,
National Cancer Institute (NCI); Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), August 1993; California Environmental Protection Agency,
“Health Effects of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke,” 1997;
California Air Resources Board, “Proposed identification of
environmental tobacco smoke as a toxic air contaminant,” Sacramento:
California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal-EPA), Air Resources
Board, Stationary Source Division, Air Quality Measures Branch,
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), September
29, 2005.)
- Inasmuch as there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand
smoke, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air
Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) bases its ventilation standards on
totally smoke-free environments. ASHRAE has determined that there is
currently no air filtration or other ventilation technology that can
completely eliminate all the carcinogenic components in secondhand
smoke and the health risks caused by secondhand smoke exposure, and
recommends that indoor environments be smoke-free in their entirety.
(Samet, J.; Bohanon, Jr., H.R.; Coultas, D.B.; Houston, T.P.;
Persily, A.K.; Schoen, L.J.; Spengler, J.; Callaway, C.A., “ASHRAE
position document on environmental tobacco smoke,” American Society
of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE),
2005.)
- These studies find that tobacco smoke is a major contributor to
indoor air pollution, and that breathing secondhand smoke is a cause
of disease, including cancer, heart disease, and stroke in nonsmokers.
At special risk are infants, children, teens, pregnant women, elderly
people, nonsmokers with long-term exposure to secondhand smoke,
individuals with cardiovascular disease, and individuals with impaired
respiratory function, including the young, asthmatics, and those with
obstructive airway disease. Also harmed are those with health
conditions induced by breathing secondhand smoke including asthma,
lung cancer, heart disease, respiratory infection, decreased
respiratory function, including bronchoconstriction and broncho-spasm.
- Accordingly, Calhoun County finds and declares that the purpose of
this regulation is to protect the public health and welfare by
regulating smoking in public places and places of employment and
recreation.
Sec. 1004. Definitions
- The following words and phrases, whenever used in this
regulation, shall be construed as defined in this section:
- “Business” means any sole proprietorship, partnership, joint
venture, corporation, or other business entity formed for
profit-making purposes, including retail establishments where goods
or services are sold as well as professional corporations and other
entities where legal, medical, dental, engineering, architectural,
or other professional services are delivered.
- “Business vehicle” means a car, bus, van, or other motorized
unit which is owned or leased by an employer for the use of
employees.
- “Convention hall” means any enclosed area where public or
private groups assemble to engage in business or social functions.
- “Employee” means any person who is employed by any employer in
the consideration for direct or indirect monetary wages or profit,
and any person who volunteers his or her services for a nonprofit or
business entity.
- “Employer” means any person, business, partnership, corporation,
including a municipal corporation, or non-profit entity, which
employs the services of one or more individual persons.
- “Enclosed area” means all space between a floor and ceiling
which is enclosed on all sides by solid walls or windows (exclusive
of door or passage ways) which extend from the floor to the ceiling,
including all space therein screened by partitions which do not
extend to the ceiling or are not solid, office landscaping, or
similar structures.
- “Food concession” means a food storage, preparation, or
dispensing operation at a state or county fair.
- “Food service establishment” means a fixed or mobile restaurant,
coffee shop, cafeteria, short order café, luncheonette, grill,
tearoom, sandwich shop, soda fountain, tavern, bar, cocktail lounge,
nightclub, drive-in, industrial feeding establishment, private
organization serving the public, rental hall, catering kitchen,
delicatessen, theater, commissary, or similar place in which food or
drink is prepared for direct consumption through service on the
premises or elsewhere, and any other eating or drinking
establishment or operation where food is served or provided for the
public. Food service establishment does not include: i) a motel that
serves continental breakfasts only; ii) a food concession; iii) a
bed and breakfast that has 10 or fewer sleeping rooms, including
sleeping rooms occupied by the innkeeper; iv) a bed and breakfast
that has at least 11 but fewer than 15 rooms for rent, if the bed
and breakfast serves continental breakfasts only; or v) a child care
organization regulated by Michigan law unless the establishment is
carrying out an operation considered by the State of Michigan to be
a food service establishment.
- “Public place” means any enclosed area to which the public is
invited or in which the public is permitted, including but not
limited to, banks, educational facilities, health facilities,
laundromats, public transportation facilities, reception areas,
retail food production and marketing establishments, retail service
establishments, retail stores, theaters, and waiting rooms. A
private residence is not a “public place.”
- “Service line” means any indoor line at which one (1) or more
persons are waiting for or receiving service of any kind, whether or
not such service involves the exchange of money.
- “Smoking” means inhaling, exhaling, burning or carrying any
lighted cigar, cigarette, pipe, weed, plant, or related substance or
product.
- “Sports arena” means sport pavilions, gymnasiums, health spas,
boxing arenas, swimming pools, roller and ice rinks, bowling alleys,
and other similar enclosed areas where members of the general public
assemble either to engage in physical exercise, participate in
athletic competition, or witness sports events, excluding such
facilities, or portions thereof, licensed as a food service
establishment.
- “Tobacco specialty store” means a retail store utilized
primarily for the sale of tobacco products and accessories and in
which the sale of other products is merely incidental.
- “Worksite” means any enclosed area under the control of a public
or private employer which employees normally frequent during the
course of employment, including, but not limited to, work areas,
employee lounges and restrooms, conference and class rooms, employee
cafeterias, and hallways. A private residence is not a “worksite”
unless it is used as a child care, adult day care, or health care
facility.
Sec. 1005. Prohibition of Smoking in Public and Private
Worksites and Public Places
- Smoking shall be prohibited in all enclosed public and
private worksites and public places within the jurisdiction of Calhoun
County, including, but not limited to, the following places:
- All enclosed areas of worksites and public places owned, rented,
leased, or otherwise within the jurisdiction of Calhoun County,
including business vehicles.
- Restrooms, lobbies, reception areas, hallways, and any other
common-use areas.
- Buses, taxicabs, and other means of public transit within the
jurisdiction of the County of Calhoun, and ticket, boarding, and
waiting areas of public transit depots.
- Business vehicles.
- Retail stores and service lines.
- All areas available to and customarily used by the general
public in all businesses and non-profit entities patronized by the
public, including but not limited to, attorneys’ offices and other
offices, banks, laundromats, hotels, and motels.
- All areas of galleries, libraries, and museums.
- Any facility which is primarily used for exhibiting any motion
picture, stage, drama, lecture, musical recital, or other similar
performance, except performers when smoking is part of a stage
production.
- Sports arenas.
- Convention halls.
- Public and private meeting facilities.
- Every room, chamber, place of meeting, or public assembly,
including school buildings under the control of any board, council,
commission, committee, including joint committees, or agencies of
Calhoun County or any political subdivision of the State of
Michigan, to the extent such location is subject to the jurisdiction
of Calhoun County.
- Waiting rooms, hallways, wards, and semi-private rooms of health
facilities, including, but not limited to, hospitals, clinics,
physical therapy facilities, doctors’ offices, and dentists’
offices.
- Lobbies, hallways, and other common areas in hotels, motels,
multiple-tenant office buildings and malls, apartment buildings,
condominiums, trailer parks, retirement facilities, nursing homes,
and other multiple-unit residential facilities.
- Public places where bingo games are held.
- Eighty percent (80%) of hotel and motel rooms rented to guests.
- Notwithstanding any other provision of this regulation,
any owner, operator, manager, or other person who controls any
establishment or facility may declare that entire establishment or
facility as a nonsmoking establishment.
Sec. 1006. Prohibition of Smoking in Places of Employment
- It shall be the responsibility of employers to provide a
smoke-free worksite as set forth in this regulation.
- Upon the effective date of this regulation, each employer having
an enclosed place of employment located within Calhoun County shall
adopt, implement, make known, and maintain a written smoking policy.
The policy shall contain, at a minimum, the following wording or
requirements:
Smoking is prohibited in all enclosed areas within this worksite
without exception. This includes common work areas, auditoriums,
classrooms, conference and meeting rooms, private offices, elevators,
hallways, medical facilities, cafeterias, employee lounges, stairs,
restrooms, employer owned or leased business vehicles, and all other
enclosed facilities.
- The smoking policy shall be communicated to all current
employees at least three (3) weeks prior to its effective date, and at
the time of employment of all other employees.
- All employers shall supply a written copy of the smoking policy
upon request to any existing or prospective employee.
Sec. 1007. Prohibition of Smoking near Entrances, Windows, and
Ventilation Systems
Smoking shall be prohibited near entrances, windows, and ventilation
systems of all worksites and public places where smoking is prohibited
by this regulation. Any individual who owns, manages, operates, or
otherwise controls the use of any premises subject to jurisdiction under
this regulation shall establish a no smoking area which extends
twenty-five (25) feet from any entrances, windows, and ventilation
systems to any enclosed areas where smoking is prohibited; such distance
shall be sufficient to insure that persons entering or leaving the
building or facility shall not be subjected to breathing tobacco smoke
and to insure that tobacco smoke does not enter the building or facility
through entrances, windows, ventilation systems, or any other means. All
smoking trash receptacles shall be placed outside the no smoking area in
order to discourage smoking in these areas.
Sec. 1008. Where Smoking is Not Regulated
- Notwithstanding any other provision of this regulation to
the contrary, the following areas shall not be subject to the smoking
restrictions of this regulation.
- Food service establishments.
- Private residences, except when used as a child care, health
care facility, or adult day care facility.
- Tobacco specialty stores.
- Notwithstanding any other provision of this regulation, any
owner, operator, manager, or other person who controls any
establishment or facility described in this section may, but is not
required to, provide outdoor smoking areas, including enclosed
areas, provided such areas meet the requirements of Section 1007 of
this regulation. These outdoor smoking areas shall not be worksites
or public places; they shall only be utilized as smoking areas. No
employee shall be required to work in any manner in these smoking
areas.
- Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, any
owner, operator, manager, or other person who controls any
establishment or facility described in this section may declare that
entire establishment or facility as a nonsmoking establishment.
Sec. 1009. Posting of Signs
- “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,
sufficiently, and conspicuously posted in every building or other area
where smoking is prohibited by this regulation. The signage shall be
posted by the owner, operator, manager, or other person having control
of such building or other area.
- Every public place where smoking is prohibited by this regulation
shall have signs conspicuously posted at every entrance clearly
stating that smoking is prohibited.
- All ashtrays and other smoking paraphernalia shall be removed from
any area where smoking is prohibited by this regulation by the owner,
operator, manager, or other person having control of such area.
Sec. 1010. Enforcement
- Enforcement of this regulation shall be implemented by the Health
Officer, or his or her designee.
- Notice of the provisions set forth in this regulation shall be
given to all applicants for a business license in Calhoun County.
- Any citizen who desires to register a complaint under this chapter
may initiate enforcement through the Health Officer, or his or her
designated staff.
- The Calhoun County Public Health Department shall require, while
an establishment is undergoing otherwise mandated inspections, a
“self-certification” from the owner, manager, operator, or other
person having control of such establishment that all requirements of
this regulation have been complied with.
- Any owner, manager, operator, or employee of any establishment
regulated by this regulation shall inform persons who are violating
this regulation of the appropriate provisions thereof.
- Notwithstanding any other provisions of this regulation, a private
citizen may bring legal action to enforce this regulation.
Sec. 1011. Nonretaliation
No person or employer shall discharge, refuse to hire, or in any
manner retaliate against any employee, applicant for employment, or
customer because such employee, applicant, or customer exercises any
right to a smoke-free environment afforded by this regulation.
Sec. 1012. Violations and Penalties
- It shall be unlawful for any individual who owns, manages,
operates, or otherwise controls the use of any premises subject to
jurisdiction under this regulation to fail to comply with any of its
provisions.
- It shall be unlawful for any individual to smoke in any area where
smoking is prohibited by the provisions of this regulation. Any
individual violating this section shall be guilty of an infraction,
punishable by either or both of the following:
- A warning citation.
- A fine not exceeding one hundred dollars ($100).
- Any individual who owns, manages, operates, or otherwise controls
the use of any premises subject to jurisdiction under this regulation
and on whose premises a violation of any provision of this regulation
occurs shall be guilty of an infraction, punishable by:
- A warning citation for a first violation.
- A fine not exceeding one hundred dollars ($100) for a second
violation within one (1) year from a finding of the first violation,
provided that adequate time has elapsed between the first and second
violation for the alleged violator to have received notice of the
first violation.
- A fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500) for a third
violation of this regulation within one (1) year from a finding of
the first violation.
- A fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1000) for each
additional violation of this regulation within one (1) year from a
finding of the first violation.
- Within twenty (20) days after receipt of a citation issued under
this section, the alleged violator may appeal the citation as provided
in Section 2462 of the Michigan Public Health Code, 1978 P.A. 368, as
amended. Further appeals, as provided by statute, may be to the
Calhoun County Board of Health, or a committee thereof.
- Notwithstanding the existence and pursuit of any other remedy, the
Health Officer or his/her designee, without posting bond, may maintain
an action in a court of competent jurisdiction for an injunction or
other process against any persons to restrain or prevent a violation
of this regulation.
- Notwithstanding any other provisions of this regulation, an
employee or a private citizen may bring legal action to enforce this
regulation.
Sec. 1013. Public Education
The Calhoun County Public Health Department shall engage in a
continuing program to explain and clarify the purposes and requirements
of this regulation to citizens affected by it, and to guide owners,
operators, and managers in their compliance with it. Such program may
include publication of a brochure for affected businesses and
individuals explaining the provisions of this regulation.
Sec. 1014. Other Applicable Laws
This regulation shall not be interpreted or construed to permit
smoking where it is otherwise restricted by other applicable laws.
Sec. 1015. Severability
If any provision, clause, sentence, or paragraph of this regulation
or the application thereof to any person or circumstances shall be held
invalid, such invalidity shall not affect the other provisions of this
regulation which can be given effect without the invalid provision or
application, and to this end the provisions of this regulation are
declared to be severable.
Sec. 1016. Effective Date
- This regulation shall be effective January 1, 2008.
- Any business as a whole with more than 750 employees that has
separate, enclosed smoking rooms as of August 1, 2007 and has written
policies in place to restrict certain employees from exiting the
building during working hours, shall comply with this regulation no
later than December 31, 2009.
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Several photos included in this 
