We all know smoking is bad for you. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cigarette smoking contributes to more than 480,000 deaths per year in the U.S., to say nothing of the non-fatal health problems smoking can cause. Employers often realize that an employee who smokes will miss work because of smoking. This is detrimental to the employee’s life, but it also hurts the business.
This month, the nation celebrated the Great American Smokeout, a day designated to help people quit smoking. This year’s event was the 10th since the passing of the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act.
The law, passed by a majority of Nevada voters in 2006, substantially changed Nevada’s smoking laws to protect people from secondhand smoke in most public places and indoor places of employment. Although the act has been in place for more than a decade, many people still have questions about what rules must be followed.
The Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act prohibits smoking tobacco in any form in most public places and in all indoor public and private places of employment, including buildings, health care facilities, childcare facilities, public and private schools and school property, college campuses, retail stores and malls, grocery and convenience stories, movie theaters and video arcades, and indoor areas of restaurants and their kitchens. Home offices in private residences are exempt. Hotels and motels, retail tobacco stores, strip clubs and brothels, and casino gaming floors where minors are banned also are exempt. In 2009, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 372, allowing smoking in areas of convention centers during tobacco-related trade shows, under certain conditions.
Then in 2011, lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 571, permitting smoking in completely enclosed stand-alone bars, taverns, and saloons in which people under 21 are prohibited from entering. This area must be located in a physically separate area from any nonsmoking area.
Employers, especially those that operate an exempt location, still have a lot of choice regarding smoking. Nothing prohibits the owners of establishments from declaring the facility smoke-free. Employers can even choose to ban the use of electronic smoking devices in their workplaces. Many restaurants and businesses choose to ban smoking on their premises, not just for their customers but for bartenders and servers who would otherwise be breathing in secondhand smoke all day.
Since its enactment, the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act has protected Nevadans and visitors to the state from exposure to secondhand smoke. It’s also worth noting that more than 1 million Nevada employees are given the right to work in a smoke-free environment.
Thoran Towler is CEO of the Nevada Association of Employers.