BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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Date of Hearing: September 8, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON FINANCE
Shirley Weber, Chair
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(Mark Stone) - As Introduced July 16, 2015
SUBJECT: Smoking in the workplace.
SUMMARY: Removes many (but not all) exemptions in existing law
that allow tobacco smoking in certain indoor workplaces and
expands the prohibition on smoking in a place of employment to
include owner-operated businesses. Specifically, this bill:
1)Extends the workplace smoking prohibition to include
owner-operated businesses in which the owner-operator of the
business is the only worker.
2)Expands the definition of enclosed space to include covered
parking lots.
3)Reduces from 65% to 20% the amount of the guestroom
accommodations in a hotel, motel, or similar transient lodging
establishment in which smoking is allowed.
4)Eliminates several exemptions in law which currently allow the
smoking of tobacco products in certain work environments,
thereby prohibiting the smoking of tobacco products indoors at
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the following locations:
a) Hotel or motel lobbies;
b) Meeting and banquet rooms in a hotel or motel;
c) Warehouse facilities;
d) Gaming clubs;
e) Bars and taverns;
f) Employee break rooms; and,
g) Businesses with a total of five or fewer employees.
5)Deletes obsolete references to regulations that would have
permitted smoking at gaming clubs, bars, and taverns had these
been adopted before January 1, 1998 by the Occupational Safety
and Health Standards Board if a safe level of exposure to
secondhand smoke were found that prevents anything other than
insignificant harmful effects to exposed employees. No such
regulations were ever adopted.
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EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes "smoke-free laws," which prohibit the smoking of
tobacco products in various places, including, but not limited
to, school campuses, public buildings, places of employment,
apartment buildings, day care facilities, retail food
facilities, health facilities, and vehicles when minors are
present, and makes a violation of some of the prohibitions
punishable by an infraction.
2)Prohibits an employer from knowingly or intentionally
permitting the smoking of tobacco products in an enclosed
space at a place of employment.
3)Defines an enclosed space as including lobbies, lounges,
waiting areas, elevators, stairwells, and restrooms that are a
structural part of the building.
4)Exempts certain places of employment from the prohibition on
smoking tobacco products in an enclosed space, including:
a) Hotel or motel lobbies that meet certain size
requirements;
b) Meeting and banquet rooms in hotels or motels;
c) Retail or wholesale tobacco shops and private smokers'
lounges;
d) Warehouse facilities;
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e) Gaming clubs, bars, and taverns;
f) Patient smoking areas in long-term health care
facilities;
g) Break rooms designated for smoking by an employer; and,
h) Businesses with five or fewer employees, among others.
1)Makes a violation of the prohibition an infraction punishable
by fines of $100 for a
first violation, $200 for a second violation within one year,
and $500 for a third and for each subsequent violation within
one year.
2)Provides for enforcement of the prohibition by local law
enforcement agencies, including health departments.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1. Minor and absorbable costs for the Department of Public
Health to provide local public health departments, law
enforcement, and the media with information about these new
statutory changes.
2. Minor enforcement costs to local law enforcement
agencies, including health departments.
COMMENTS (According to the Assembly Committee on Public Health
and Developmental Services):
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1)PURPOSE OF THIS BILL. According to the author, California's
workers and business patrons are integral to maintaining a
strong California economy and it is vital that California
protect the health and safety of these people. The author
states that secondhand smoke is a toxic air contaminant and it
is well known that there is no safe amount of exposure to
these dangerous chemicals. The author notes secondhand smoke
contributes to many cases of lung cancer, heart disease, and
strokes which can lead to death, and due to the many workplace
smoking exemptions, California cannot join 26 other states
including Washington D.C. in being named "smoke-free" by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The author
concludes, in order to protect California's workers and to
take one step closer to joining the 26 other states, it is
imperative that California remove exemptions to its smoke-free
workplace laws.
2)BACKGROUND.
a) Secondhand smoke. The California Air Resources Board
(ARB) has classified secondhand smoke as a toxic air
contaminant. ARB notes that tobacco smoke releases 40 tons
of nicotine, 365 tons of particulate matter, and 1900 tons
of carbon monoxide into the California environment each
year. The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
has noted clearly established links between exposure to
secondhand smoke and a number of adverse health effects
including: premature births; low birth rates; sudden
infant death syndrome; the exacerbation of asthma; ear and
respiratory infections; lung and nasal sinus cancer; heart
disease; and, eye and nasal irritation.
According to the 2014 Surgeon General's Report, How Tobacco
Smoke Causes Disease, there have been more than 20 million
smoking-related deaths in the U.S. since 1964; 2.5 million
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of those deaths were among non-smokers who died from
exposure to secondhand smoke. Each year in the United
States alone, secondhand smoke is responsible for an
estimated 42,000 deaths from heart disease in people who
are current non-smokers; about 7,000 lung cancer deaths in
non-smoking adults; more severe asthma and asthma-related
problems in up to 1 million asthmatic children; and,
between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract (lung
and bronchus) infections in children under 18 months of
age, with 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations each year. In
the U.S., the costs of extra medical care, illness, and
death caused by second hand smoke are over $10 billion per
year.
b) Smoke-free workplaces. According to the California
Tobacco Program, smoke-free workplace laws not only protect
workers and the public from secondhand smoke, they have
also been found to reduce the rate of heart attacks by an
average of 17% after one year and 26% after three years.
They also help smokers quit by decreasing cigarette
consumption and increasing rates of quit attempts.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
American Heart Association / American Stroke Association
American Lung Association
California Medical Association
Health Officers Association of California
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by: Andrea Margolis / FINANCE /916-319-2099
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