(a) Pursuant to this section, the person in charge of a public place may designate an area for the use of smokers. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a smoking area may not be designated and no person may smoke in any of the following unless the area is enclosed and well ventilated:
- (1) Child care facilities.
- (2) Hospitals, health care clinics, doctors’ offices, physical therapy facilities, and dentists’ offices.
- (3) Elevators.
- (4) Buses, taxicabs, and other means of public conveyance.
- (5) Government buildings, except private offices.
- (6) Restrooms.
- (7) Service lines.
- (8) Public areas of aquariums, galleries, libraries, and museums.
- (9) Lobbies, hallways, and other common areas in apartment buildings, senior citizen residences, nursing homes, and other multiple-unit residential facilities.
- (10) Polling places.
- (11) Schools or other school facilities or enclosed school sponsored events for grades K-12.
- (12) Retail establishments, excluding restaurants, except areas in retail establishments not open to the public.
- (13) Lobbies, hallways, and other common areas in multiple-unit commercial facilities.
- (b) If a smoking area is designated, existing physical barriers and ventilation systems shall be used to minimize the toxic effect of smoke, and no more than one-fourth of the total square footage in any public place within a single enclosed area shall be reserved and designated for smokers unless clientele dictates otherwise. No area designated as a smoking area shall contain common facilities which are expected to be used by the public.
- (c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent any owner, operator, manager, or other person who controls any establishment or facility from declaring and enforcing a nonsmoking policy in the entire establishment or facility.
- (d) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section or this chapter, if any restaurant is deemed by its owner as being too small to have a designated smoking area, it shall be left up to the discretion of the owner if the facility will be a “smoking” or a “nonsmoking” facility.
(Act 2003-314, p. 770, §6.)