Exemptions in state smoke-free air laws: Common gaps that exist in comprehensive legislation

Secondhand smoke exposure causes 46,000 heart attacks and 3,400 lung cancer deaths each year. Smoke-free indoor air laws that ban smoking in all indoor areas protect non-smokers from the adverse health effects of secondhand smoke. In the last decade, state smoke-free air laws that ban smoking in all indoor areas have become more prevalent in the United States. States are increasingly enacting comprehensive legislation that prohibits smoking in most public places and worksites. However, even the most comprehensive state smoke-free laws typically exempt some locations.

No online legislative tracking system fully details the extent of exemptions in state smoking laws. Becoming familiar with common exemptions is helpful to understand their potential impact on the process of implementing a law and on the level of public health protection that a law provides.

Using the Centers for Disease Control's State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation (STATE) System, this presentation will provide an overview of the current status of state smoke-free air laws. After analyzing state smoking laws downloaded from Lexis-Nexis, the presentation will examine the types and prevalence of exemptions in states with comprehensive smoke-free laws.

Preliminary results show that while some locations that are exempted from the law are unique to a state's circumstances, such as brothels in Nevada or tractors in Iowa, certain settings are often exempted regardless of the state. These settings include: very small businesses, hotel rooms, private clubs, long-term care facilities, tobacco manufacturing facilities, tobacco retail shops, cigar bars, hookah bars, race tracks, casinos, and age-restricted venues.