County considers updates to smoking rules
Proposals include vaping restrictions, making bus-stops smoke free
Boulder County commissioners are expected to consider a set of updates to the county’s 17-year-old restrictions and prohibitions about smoking inside and adjacent to businesses and other public gathering venues in unincorporated par ts of the county on March 25.
That’s the date currently scheduled for a public hearing and possible Board of County Commissioners action on the new smoking code that’s being proposed by Boulder County Public Health’s Tobacco Education and Prevention Program, health department representatives said during a vir tual community meeting Monday night.
The health depar tment’s staf f has said Boulder County’s update would bring a 2004 county ordinance “prohibiting smoking in public places and places of employment in unincorporated Boulder County” in line with the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act, which was passed in 2006 and then updated by the state in 2019.
The update, if adopted by the county commissioners, would change the language and definitions for unincorporated Boulder County anti-smoking code to come in line with the state law, such as adding perimeter restrictions for smoking outside business entrances and adding language to protect residents from aerosols from vaping.
County officials have said that to conform to current state law and state regulations, the restrictions the health depar tment is proposing for unincorporated locations would forbid vaping devices from being used in areas where conventional smoking is also prohibited and would not allow smoking or vaping within 25 feet of any business entr yway.
“There is no safe level of secondhand smoke or secondhand vapor,” Tobacco Education and Prevention Program coordinator Rachel Freeman said during Monday night’s community meeting.
Also under consideration are provisions that would
require some outdoor public spaces in unincorporated areas to be smoke-free, including restaurant and bar patios, public parks and bus stops. Boulder County of ficials have said those additional updates would go beyond what current state law requires but would be similar to policies in place in some of Boulder County’s cities and towns.
Tobacco Education and Prevention Program technician Gretchen Smith said enforcement would focus on businesses, not individuals whose smoking inside or outside those businesses violates the proposed rules, and that enforcement would take an “education-first approach.”
A first violation would prompt a letter to the business about the county code’s smoking regulations and restrictions, Smith said. Report of a second violation at that business would result in an unannounced visit by county staf f to check out whether the business is obeying the local rules for unincorporated areas, as well as completion of a “remediation plan” if it’s found that the business was in violation that second time, Smith said.
Report of a third violation within a year’s time would prompt another unannounced county visit to the business and if the violation is obser ved to be happening, could result in a fine of up to $500.
“We can impose a fine, but we hope not to do that,” Smith said.
Monday night’s online community meeting was intended to get questions and comments from residents and the owners of businesses in unincorporated Boulder County about the proposed antismoking measure, but only three people who were not members of the county staff or reporting on the meeting listened in during the half-hour-long meeting.
None of those them stated any objections to the suggested county code updates during the meeting, although there were a couple of questions, such as whether the updated code would apply to units in an multi-unit apartment complex. They would not, county staf f said, although staf f added that smoking is banned in residences funded by the U.S. Depar tment of Housing and Urban Development.