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CHAPTER 23-20.7 Workplace Smoking Pollution Control Act
§ 23-20.7-1 Legislative intent. – The use of tobacco for smoking purposes is being found to be increasingly dangerous, not only to the person smoking but also to the nonsmoking person who is required to breathe such contaminated air. The most pervasive intrusion of the nonsmoker's right to unpolluted air space is the uncontrolled smoking in the workplace. The legislature intends, by the enactment of this chapter, to protect the health and atmospheric environment of the nonsmoker by regulating smoking in the workplace.
§ 23-20.7-2 Short title. – This chapter shall be known as the "Rhode Island Workplace Smoking Pollution Control Act".
§ 23-20.7-3 Purpose. – (a) Because the smoking of tobacco or any other weed or plant is a danger to health and is a cause of material annoyance and discomfort to those who are present in confined places, the legislature hereby declares that the purposes of this chapter are (1) to protect the public health and welfare by regulating smoking in the workplace and (2) to minimize the toxic effects of smoking in the workplace by requiring an employer to adopt a policy that will accommodate, insofar as possible, the preferences of nonsmokers and smokers.
(b) This chapter is not intended to create any right to sue or to impair or alter an employer's prerogative to prohibit smoking in the workplace. If an employer allows employees to smoke in the workplace, this chapter requires (1) that the employer make reasonable accommodation for the preferences of both nonsmoking and smoking employees, particularly those employees who, as a result of physical condition, are unduly sensitive to tobacco smoke; (2) all nonsmoking areas shall be designated and conspicuously marked with signs; (3) employers are prohibited from terminating, without due cause, or discriminating against an employee solely because the employee exercised his or her right under this chapter.
§ 23-20.7-4 Definitions. – As used in this chapter:
(1) "Employee" means any person who is employed by any employer in consideration for direct or indirect monetary wage or profit;
(2) "Employer" means any person who employs the service of an individual person;
(3) "Enclosed" means closed in by a roof and four walls with appropriate openings for ingress and egress and is not intended to mean areas commonly described as public lobbies;
(4) "Legislature" means the general assembly of the state of Rhode Island;
(5) "Person" means any individual person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company, organization, or legal entity of any kind;
(6) "Smoking" or "to smoke" or "smoke" means and includes the inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying of any lighted smoking equipment or paraphernalia for tobacco or any other weed or plant; and
(7) "Workplace" means any enclosed area of a structure or portion thereof intended for occupancy by business entities which will provide primarily, but not exclusively, clerical, professional, or business services of the business entity, or which will provide primarily, but not exclusively, clerical, professional, or business services to other business entities or to the public, at that location. The workplace includes, but is not limited to, office spaces in office buildings, office spaces in all state and municipal office buildings, office spaces in all federal office buildings where other than federal employees are present, medical office waiting rooms, all factory or manufacturing plant areas, libraries, museums, hospitals, nursing homes, other medical treatment facilities, and in all the aforementioned.
§ 23-20.7-5 Regulation of smoking in the workplace. –
(a) Each employer who operates a workplace in this state shall within three (3) months of adoption of this chapter adopt, implement, and maintain a written smoking policy which will contain, at a minimum, a policy which is designed to protect the health and atmospheric environment of the nonsmoker and to ensure a comfortable environment for all employees, and the requirement that any nonsmoking employee may object to his or her employer about the smoke hazard or discomfort in his or her workplace.
Using existing means of ventilation or separation or partition of the work space:
(1) The employer shall attempt to reach a reasonable accommodation to protect the health and atmospheric environment of the nonsmoking employees and to ensure a comfortable environment for all employees.
(2) The employer shall either make such an accommodation or completely prohibit smoking in those areas of the workplace where nonsmoking employees may reasonably be expected to be adversely affected by passive cigarette smoke.
(b) The employer's smoking policy shall be announced within three (3) weeks of adoption to all employees working in workplaces in this state and posted conspicuously in all workplaces under the employer's jurisdiction.
(c) The director of the department of health shall promulgate rules and regulations to enforce the provisions of this chapter.
§ 23-20.7-6 Where smoking not regulated. – This chapter is not intended to regulate smoking in the following places and under the following conditions within the state:
(1) A private home which may serve as a workplace;
(2) Any office space leased or rented by a sole independent contractor for his or her own use;
(3) A private enclosed workplace occupied exclusively by smokers, even though such a workplace is visited by nonsmokers, excepting places in which smoking is prohibited by the fire marshal or by other law, ordinance, or regulation.
§ 23-20.7-7 Penalties and enforcement. – (a) The department of health, having received a written and signed letter of complaint from an employee citing a violation of this chapter, shall enforce this entire chapter against violations by either of the following actions:
(1) Serving written notice to comply to an employer, with a copy of the notice to the complaining employee, requiring the employer to correct within ten (10) days any violation or section of this chapter.
(2) Upon receiving a second complaint at the department of health for the same or continued violation by the same employer, the complaint shall be resolved by calling upon the attorney general to maintain, without delay, an action for injunction to enforce the provisions of this chapter, to cause the correction of such violation or section, and for assessment and recovery of a civil penalty for such violation.
(b) An employer who violates this chapter shall be liable for a civil penalty, not to be less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor to exceed five hundred dollars ($500) which shall be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought by the attorney general in any court of competent jurisdiction. Each day the violation is committed or permitted to continue shall constitute a separate offense and shall be punishable as such. Any penalty assessed and recovered in an action brought pursuant to this subsection shall be paid over to the general treasurer and added to the general fund.
(c) In undertaking the enforcement of this chapter, the state is assuming an undertaking only to promote the general welfare. It is not assuming, nor is it imposing on its officers and employees, an obligation for reach of which it is liable in money damages to any person who claims that such breach proximately caused injury.