Expanded Clean Indoor Air Act
Fact Sheet for Smokefree Work Places
The expanded Clean Indoor Air Act went into effect July 24, 2003. This act expands the 1989 Clean Indoor Air Act and further protects all New Yorkers at work and in public from deadly secondhand smoke.
- The Clean Indoor Air Act (Public Health Law, Article 13-E) prohibits smoking in nearly all public and work places to protect the public and employees from secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is the combination of smoke exhaled by a smoker and the smoke from a burning cigarette. This combination is dangerous for both the smoker and the nonsmoker. It contains more the 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known cancer-causing substances. Secondhand smoke kills approximately 62,000 nonsmokers each year in the United States.
- The types of businesses the expanded law applies to include places of employment; bars; restaurants; enclosed swimming areas; public transportation including subways and subway stations and all ticketing, boarding and waiting areas; and buses, vans, taxicabs and limousines; all places of employment where services are offered for children; all schools, including school grounds; all public and private colleges, universities and other educational and vocational institutions; general hospitals; residential health care facilities, however, adult patients can smoke in separately designated smoking rooms; commercial establishments used for the purpose of carrying on or exercising any trade, profession, vocation or charitable activity; all indoor arenas; zoos; and bingo facilities.
- Smoking is allowed in the following areas or businesses: private homes, private residences and private automobiles when not in use for day care; hotel or motel rooms rented to one or more guests; retail tobacco businesses – the primary activity is the retail sale of tobacco products and accessories and the sale of other products is merely incidental; membership associations where all duties related to the operation of the association are performed by volunteers who are not compensated in any manner; cigar bars in existence prior to Jan 1, 2003 where 10 percent or more of total annual gross income is from the sale of tobacco products; in outdoor seating areas of restaurants with no roof or ceiling enclosure up to 25 percent of the outdoor seating area may be designated as “smoking.”
To learn more about the Expanded Clean Indoor Air Act, call 1-800-458-1158, Ext. 2-7600 or contact your local health department or district health office or visit www.health.state.ny.us.
If you smoke and want to quit, or know someone who wants to quit call the New York State Smokers’ Quit Line at 1-866-NY-QUITS (1-866-697-8487) for free helpful information, or visit www.nysmokefree.com.