Idaho § 39-5503 - Prohibitions - Exceptions

§ 39-5503. Prohibitions - Exceptions

(1) No person shall smoke in a public place, publicly-owned building or office, or at a public meeting, except in the following which may contain smoking areas or be designated as smoking areas in their entirety:

(a) Bars;

(b) Retail businesses primarily engaged in the sale of tobacco or tobacco products;

(c) Buildings owned and operated by social, fraternal, or religious organizations when used by the membership of the organization, their guests or families, or any facility that is rented or leased for private functions from which the public is excluded and for which arrangements are under the control of the sponsor of the function;

(d) Guest rooms in hotels, motels, bed and breakfast lodging facilities, and other similar lodging facilities, designated by the person or persons having management authority over such public lodging establishment as rooms in which smoking may be permitted;

(e) Theatrical production sites, if smoking is an integral part of the story in the theatrical production;

(f) Areas of owner-operated businesses, with no employees other than the owner-operators, that are not commonly open to the public;

(g) Any office or business, other than child care facilities, located within the proprietor’s private home when all such offices and/or businesses occupy less than fifty percent (50%) of the total area within the private home;

(h) Idaho state veterans homes, established pursuant to section 66-901 , Idaho Code, that permit smoking in designated areas, provided that physical barriers and ventilation systems are used to reduce smoke in adjacent nonsmoking areas; and

(i) A designated employee breakroom established by a small business owner employing five (5) or fewer employees, provided that all of the following conditions are met:

(i) The breakroom is not accessible to minors;

(ii) The breakroom is separated from other parts of the building by a floor to ceiling partition;

(iii) The breakroom is not the sole means of entrance or exit to the establishment or its restrooms and is located in an area where no employee is required to enter as part of the employee’s work responsibilities. For purposes of this paragraph, the term "work responsibilities" does not include custodial or maintenance work performed in a breakroom when it is unoccupied; and

(iv) "Warning: Smoking Permitted" signs are prominently posted in the smoking breakroom and properly maintained by the employer. The letters on such signs shall be at least one (1) inch in height.

(2) This section shall not be construed to require employers to provide reasonable accommodation to smokers, or to provide breakrooms for smokers or nonsmokers.

(3) Nothing in this section shall prohibit an employer from prohibiting smoking in an enclosed place of employment.

[39-5503, added 1985, ch. 60, sec. 1, p. 120; am. 2004, ch. 389, sec. 3, p. 1168; am. 2005, ch. 96, sec. 1, p. 315; am. 2007, ch. 272, sec. 1, p. 799.]