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News you can use
Secondhand smoke is a serious health hazard, causing or worsening a wide range of adverse health effects, including lung cancer, respiratory infections and asthma.
A number of states have moved to protect their citizens from this threat by passing laws that prohibit smoking in almost all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars. According the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, to date, 25 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, plus hundreds of cities and counties, have enacted comprehensive smoke-free laws covering workplaces, restaurants, and bars. Another five states have enacted strong smokefree laws covering restaurants and bars.
The debate is over — secondhand tobacco smoke kills.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, secondhand smoke causes lung cancer, heart disease, sudden infant death syndrome, low-birth-weight babies, asthma, bronchitis and other serious illnesses. It is responsible for annually killing at least 41,000 Americans. In 2006, the U.S. Surgeon General declared that there is no scientific debate whether secondhand tobacco smoke causes serious diseases, and that the only way to protect the public is to eliminate exposure.
The Clean Indoor Air Act
Montana passed the Clean Indoor Air Act in 2005. All indoor workplaces were covered by the law, excluding all bars and casinos which were granted a four year exception. On October 1, 2009, all indoor workplaces in Montana became smokefree.
The CIAA was enacted to eliminate smoking from enclosed public places and workplaces. The law has three purposes:
• To protect the public health and welfare by prohibiting smoking in public places and places of employment,
• To recognize the right of nonsmokers to breathe smokefree air,
• To recognize that the need to breathe smokefree air has priority over the desire to smoke.
An enclosed public place means any public indoor area, room, or vehicle or indoor workplace including:
• Restaurants, bars and casinos,
• Stores,
• Public and private office buildings,
• Trains, buses and other forms of public transportation,
• Health care facilities,
• Auditoriums, arenas, meeting rooms and other assembly facilities,
• Family or group day care homes,
• Adult foster care homes,
• State university buildings, including dormitories.
The Montana Clean Indoor Air Act also includes a provision governing schools, stating that the use of any tobacco product on any public school property including outdoors is not allowed — with the exception of use in connection with American Indian cultural practices.
Penalties for noncompliance
Establishment owners and managers who violate the law will receive a warning for the first offense, a written warning for the second, and are guilty of a misdemeanor after the third violation within a three-year period. The fine is $100 for the third violation, $200 for the fourth, and $500 for any subsequent violations. Overall statewide compliance is very high, with business patrons and workplace employees reporting their appreciation of smoke-free indoor environments.
Contact information for filing a complaints
Anyone may file a complaint regarding a violation of the CIAA.
• File complaint online at http://tobaccofree.mt.gov
• Telephone toll-free CIAA Information Line at 1-866-787-5247.
To get free smoke-free signage for use at your business, or for other questions, contact Jay Schuschke at 265-6206 ext. 309 or email [email protected]
For help quitting tobacco use, call the Montana Quit Line at 1-800-QUIT-NOW. The call and the service are both free. Call now.
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