26B-7-503.  Utah Indoor Clean Air Act — Restriction on smoking in public places and in specified places — Exceptions — Enforcement — Penalties — Local ordinances.

(1)  Except as provided in Subsections (2) and (3), smoking is prohibited in all enclosed indoor places of public access and publicly owned buildings and offices.

Terms Used In Utah Code 26B-7-503

  • City: includes , depending on population, a metro township as defined in Section 10-3c-102. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5
  • Employee: means an employee of a tobacco retailer. See Utah Code 26B-7-501
  • Local health department: means the same as that term is defined in Section 26A-1-102. See Utah Code 26B-7-501
  • Owner: means a person holding a 20% ownership interest in the business that is required to obtain a permit under this part. See Utah Code 26B-7-501
  • Place of public access: means any enclosed indoor place of business, commerce, banking, financial service, or other service-related activity, whether publicly or privately owned and whether operated for profit or not, to which persons not employed at the place of public access have general and regular access or which the public uses, including:
(a) buildings, offices, shops, elevators, or restrooms;
(b) means of transportation or common carrier waiting rooms;
(c) restaurants, cafes, or cafeterias;
(d) taverns as defined in Section 32B-1-102, or cabarets;
(e) shopping malls, retail stores, grocery stores, or arcades;
(f) libraries, theaters, concert halls, museums, art galleries, planetariums, historical sites, auditoriums, or arenas;
(g) barber shops, hair salons, or laundromats;
(h) sports or fitness facilities;
(i) common areas of nursing homes, hospitals, resorts, hotels, motels, "bed and breakfast" lodging facilities, and other similar lodging facilities, including the lobbies, hallways, elevators, restaurants, cafeterias, other designated dining areas, and restrooms of any of these;
(j) 
(i) any child care facility or program subject to licensure or certification under this title, including those operated in private homes, when any child cared for under that license is present; and
(ii) any child care, other than child care as defined in Section 26B-2-401, that is not subject to licensure or certification under this title, when any child cared for by the provider, other than the child of the provider, is present;
(k) public or private elementary or secondary school buildings and educational facilities or the property on which those facilities are located;
(l) any building owned, rented, leased, or otherwise operated by a social, fraternal, or religious organization when used solely by the organization members or the members' guests or families;
(m) any facility rented or leased for private functions from which the general public is excluded and arrangements for the function are under the control of the function sponsor;
(n) any workplace that is not a place of public access or a publicly owned building or office but has one or more employees who are not owner-operators of the business;
(o) any area where the proprietor or manager of the area has posted a conspicuous sign stating "no smoking" "thank you for not smoking" or similar statement; and
(p) a holder of a bar establishment license, as defined in Section 32B-1-102. See Utah Code 26B-7-501
  • Smoking: means :
    (a) the possession of any lighted or heated tobacco product in any form;
    (b) inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying any lighted or heated cigar, cigarette, pipe, or hookah that contains:
    (i) tobacco or any plant product intended for inhalation;
    (ii) shisha or non-tobacco shisha;
    (iii) nicotine;
    (iv) a natural or synthetic tobacco substitute; or
    (v) a natural or synthetic flavored tobacco product;
    (c) using an electronic cigarette; or
    (d) using an oral smoking device intended to circumvent the prohibition of smoking in this part. See Utah Code 26B-7-501
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes a state, district, or territory of the United States. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5
  • United States: includes each state, district, and territory of the United States of America. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5
    • (2)  Subsection (1) does not apply to:

    (a)  areas not commonly open to the public of owner-operated businesses having no employees other than the owner-operator;

    (b)  guest rooms in hotels, motels, “bed and breakfast” lodging facilities, and other similar lodging facilities, but smoking is prohibited under Subsection (1) in the common areas of these facilities, including dining areas and lobby areas; and

    (c)  separate enclosed smoking areas:

    (i)  located in the passenger terminals of an international airport located in the city of the first class;

    (ii)  vented directly to the outdoors; and

    (iii)  certified, by a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning engineer licensed by the state, to prevent the drift of any smoke to any nonsmoking area of the terminal.

    (3) 

    (a)  A person is exempt from the restrictions of Subsection (1) if the person:

    (i)  is a member of an American Indian tribe whose members are recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to American Indians who are members of those tribes;

    (ii)  is an American Indian who actively practices an American Indian religion, the origin and interpretation of which is from a traditional American Indian culture;

    (iii)  is smoking tobacco using the traditional pipe of an American Indian tribal religious ceremony, of which tribe the person is a member, and is smoking the pipe as part of that ceremony; and

    (iv)  the ceremony is conducted by a pipe carrier, Indian spiritual person, or medicine person recognized by the tribe of which the person is a member and the Indian community.

    (b)  This Subsection (3) takes precedence over Subsection (1).

    (c)  A religious ceremony using a traditional pipe under this section is subject to any applicable state or local law, except as provided in this section.

    (4) 

    (a)  An owner or the agent or employee of the owner of a place where smoking is prohibited under Subsection (1) who observes a person smoking in apparent violation of this section shall request the person to stop smoking.

    (b)  If the person fails to comply, the proprietor or the agent or employee of the proprietor shall ask the person to leave the premises.

    (5) 

    (a)  A first violation of Subsection (1) is subject to a civil penalty of not more than $100.

    (b)  Any second or subsequent violation of Subsection (1) is subject to a civil penalty of not less than $100 and not more than $500.

    (6) 

    (a)  The department and local health departments shall:

    (i)  enforce this section and shall coordinate their efforts to promote the most effective enforcement of this section; and

    (ii)  impose the penalties under Subsection (5) in accordance with this Subsection (6).

    (b)  When enforcing this section, the department and the local health departments shall notify persons of alleged violations of this part, conduct hearings, and impose penalties in accordance with Title 63G, Chapter 4, Administrative Procedures Act.

    (c)  The department shall adopt rules necessary and reasonable to implement the provisions of this section.

    (7)  Civil penalties collected under this section by:

    (a)  a local health department shall be paid to the treasurer of the county in which the violation was committed; and

    (b)  the department shall be deposited into the General Fund.

    (8) 

    (a)  This section supersedes any ordinance enacted by the governing body of a political subdivision that restricts smoking in a place of public access as defined in Section 26B-7-501 and that is not essentially identical to the provisions of this section.

    (b)  This Subsection (8) does not supersede an ordinance enacted by the governing body of a political subdivision that restricts smoking in outdoor places of public access which are owned or operated by:

    (i)  a political subdivision as defined in Section 17B-1-102;

    (ii)  a state institution of higher education; or

    (iii)  a state institution of public education.

    Renumbered and Amended by Chapter 308, 2023 General Session

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