State finally clears air on workplace smoking

Washington smokers hustled out of the bars and onto the streets eight months ago will soon get the bum’s rush from their employers.

It’s about time.

For some reason, it has taken officials in Olympia the better part of a year to posit authority for regulating smoking in business offices with the Department of Labor & Industries. Last month, the department published proposals that tighten to near the strangulation point rules governing where office employees can light up.

The new regulations undo the work of five years ago, when the existing rules were imposed. Then, the objective was to control smoking and smoke by restricting the cigarette-dependent to indoor areas that vented all smoke, or to the out-of-doors. There was all sorts of verbiage specifying with areas in particular had to be smoke free, and ventilation rates where it was allowed. It even defines the act of smoking.

“A person is smoking if they are: Lighting up; Inhaling; Exhaling; Carrying a pipe, cigar or cigarette of any kind that is burning.”

Glad they cleared that up.

The new rules have the simplicity of a commandment; Thou Shalt Not. Out is “control,” in is “eliminate” and “prohibit.” Like bar-goers, employees forced outside must stay 25 feet away from any door, window or duct that might allow smoke back inside.

L&I spokesman Robert Nelson says the department wanted to void its old rules to prevent employers from using them as a foil against the full application of Initiative 901, the strict anti-smoking law Washington voters approved last year by a two-to-one margin.

Officials also wanted to be sure L&I retained jurisdiction over workplaces, he says. “It’s L&I’s responsibility to protect the health of workers.”

Nelson says discussions with the Attorney General’s Office and Department of Health clarified L&I’s role. Most enforcement authority was vested with the state’s health districts.

Early on, that meant a passel of work for the Spokane Regional Health District, says spokeswoman Julie Graham.

“We’ve had lots of complaints about just about every business you can name,” says Graham, who adds the district had to redeploy some of its staff to respond to the initial crush. But almost as quickly as complaints surged in the first three months following implementation of the law, they receded the second three months.

“Things have gotten a lot better,” she says. “We’ve hardly had any complaints.”

Much of the enforcement activity was recently subcontracted, for $15,000, to State Protection Services, although the district’s food inspectors can also report violations.

State Protection checks out consumer complaints against businesses allegedly violating non-smoking laws. If a violation is found, a warning is issued. If a follow-up inspection reveals that violations continue, a fine is imposed. If a business owner still refuses to comply, the Health District can seek injunctive relief in Superior Court.

So far, that’s only been necessary three times, and the district has prevailed every time. The three holdouts remain in compliance, and in business.

Graham says the offenders apparently thought vociferous complaints might change policy. What they came to realize, she says, is that “the support for the law is overwhelming.”

Now that much of the initial resistance to I-901 has blown over, implementation of the L&I rules will likely be a non-event. Unless comments due by Oct. 2 somehow derail implementation of the rules, they will take effect Dec. 1.

The regulations will be another incremental victory in Washington’s war against nicotine. One in five smokers in Washington has quit since 1999, taking the overall smoking rate to 17.8 percent. Maybe workplace proscriptions, plus counseling, can take that to one in four.