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Hendricks briefs commissioners
ALAMOSA — San Luis Valley officials are preparing for the July 1 implementation of the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act.
SLV County Commissioners Association members met this week with Paula Hendricks, regional coordinator for the San Luis Valley Tobacco Education & Prevention Partnership.
Hendricks said the implementation of the clean air act is still scheduled for July 1. She said a lawsuit was filed last week in an attempt to stop the implementation, but she understood it would probably not delay anything. Colorado is the 13th state to go smoke-free.
Hendricks said the purpose of this smoke-free law is to preserve and improve health. She said secondhand smoke is a Class A carcinogen. Mustard gas is in the same category, she said. “It is something we do not want everyone suffering from,” she said.
Even small exposure to secondhand smoke can put people at risk for heart attacks, Hendricks said. She added a study showed the incidence of heart attacks decreased significantly after Pueblo went smoke-free.
Hendricks reminded Valley officials the clean indoor act pertains to all indoor places including restaurants, bars, pool halls, bowling alleys, indoor sports arenas, public buildings as well as private clubs, common-use areas such as lobbies and restrooms and 75 percent of hotel/motel rooms.
Hendricks said one of the adjustments Alamosa businesses which are already smoke-free will have to make is in entryways. The statewide law, which supersedes local laws when they are less strict, requires a smoke-free area of at least 15 feet in radius around main entryways. The local authority may impose a greater or lesser smoke-free radius, Hendricks said.
Private clubs and bars are not exempt from the state law either. That is a change from the City of Alamosa’s current smoke-free ordinance.
Hendricks said the exemptions to the new state law include: private homes and cars; limos under private hire; 25 percent of hotel/motel rooms; retail tobacco businesses; enclosed/ventilated smoking lounges at Denver International Airport; businesses with three or fewer employees where the public is not allowed; private farm/ranch buildings with less than $500,000 income; and cigar-tobacco bars. The criteria for a qualifying cigar-tobacco bar is pretty tight, Hendricks explained. The establishment had to have qualified by December 31 of last year, and its tobacco sales must have been 5 percent or $500,000 of its revenue.
Hendricks said Monte Vista just enacted a clean air ordinance which is stricter than the state’s law, so local law enforcement can enforce the local or the state law. Monte Vista’s smoke-free perimeter around businesses is 25 feet, Hendricks added.
She said buildings do not have to put signs up to indicate smoke-free premises, but the state has free signs available for businesses which want them.