Designating Smoking Areas

April 13, 2006

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If you are required by state law, or have decided on your own, to restrict smoking in the workplace, you may want to provide a designated smoking area to those employees who smoke. You could allow smoking at break times in:

well-ventilated common areas, such as in an atrium or a break room with windows
areas that the public may enter, such as the lobby
certain parts of an area, such as designated tables in the employee break room
a covered outdoor area, such as a picnic table or porch

If smoking is not permitted in the work area, be sure that employees know how often they can go to the smoking area for a smoke break. Some employers have problems because employees who smoke take frequent breaks, apart from regular breaks, to smoke. That can cause friction between smoking and nonsmoking employees and can present some problems in terms of the Fair Labor Standards Act if employees are paid by the hour.

The Environmental Protection Agency recommends that employers either restrict smoking in buildings to separately ventilated areas directly exhausted to the outside or ban smoking entirely in order to protect nonsmokers from environmental tobacco smoke.

Identifying smoking areas. Many states require that you clearly identify the nonsmoking and smoking areas of a workplace with signs. In some states, the sign must include the internationally recognized no smoking symbol (a red circle containing a depiction of a lit cigarette with a line drawn diagonally through the entire circle).

Some states require specific wording for smoking or no smoking and, in some cases, a fine for violating the nonsmoking zone. In addition, some states require you to post their smoking policies in conspicuous areas around the workplace.

Check your state's laws to see what is required of your business.