Legislative Findings and Purpose

(a)The Legislature finds that numerous studies have proven that tobacco smoke is a major contributor to indoor air pollution; that breathing residual smoke is a cause of disease, including lung cancer, in healthy nonsmokers; that special risk populations are elderly people, individuals with cardiovascular disease, and individuals with impaired respiratory function, including asthmatics and those with obstructive airway disease; that a majority of both nonsmokers and smokers desire to COL1/24/2020 have restrictions placed on smoking in public places and places of employment; and that smoking is a potential cause of fires, cigarette and cigar burns, and ash stains on merchandise, causing losses to businesses.

(b)The Legislature declares that the purposes of this chapter are

(1)to protect the public health and welfare by prohibiting smoking in public places except in designated smoking areas, and by regulating smoking in places of employment; and

(2)to strike a reasonable balance between the needs of persons who smoke and the right of nonsmokers to breathe smoke-free air, and to recognize that the right to breathe smoke-free air shall take priority.