The Kitsap County board of commissioners finds that:
(1)
Extensive medical and scientific research confirms that environmental tobacco smoke is harmful to smokers and nonsmokers alike, causing eye, nose, throat and head irritations, aggravating lung and heart diseases, including emphysema, and is linked to various types of cancers.
(2)
Extensive medical and scientific research concludes that carbon monoxide levels in rooms and vehicles where smoking occurs often exceeds maximum permissible safety levels, and that other hazardous compounds are contributed to the environment by tobacco smoke, including but not limited to tar, nicotine, cadmium, nitrogen dioxide, ammonia, benzene, formaldehyde, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen cyanide and arsenic, adversely affecting smokers and non-smokers alike in their general health and specific job performances.
(3)
Extensive research shows that smoking in the workplace causes loss in employee productivity, increases in employee accident rates and absenteeism, increases in employer medical costs, greater threats of fire damage, and other detriment to both public and private property.
(4)
Recent court decisions and legal actions show an increasing trend to hold employers liable for personal injuries, disabilities or other job-related ailments suffered by employees as a result of tobacco smoke in the workplace.
(5)
The Washington State Legislature has recognized the increasing evidence posed by tobacco smoke in the workplace and has therefore enacted the Washington Clean Indoor Air Act, codified at Chapter 70.160 RCW.
(6)
It is necessary to limit designated smoking locations in order to protect county employees and the public from the health and property hazards created by tobacco smoke and limit the litter associated with smoking debris.
(7)
Under the State Department of Labor and Industries’ Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) regulation, WAC 296-62-12000, the County must minimize the amount of environmental tobacco smoke that enters its office buildings; and has determined that prohibiting smoking from within fifty feet of office building entryways or other openings is necessary to ensure compliance with that regulatory requirement.
(Ord. 123 (1988) § 1, 1988; Ord. 276 (2002) § 1, 2002)