• Connecticut’s Clean Indoor Air Act applies to government buildings, health care institutions, retail food stores, restaurants, public schools and colleges, and passenger elevators.   

• Smoking is prohibited in any building operated by the state or by any town, city, or county, except in a designated smoking area.
•  The administrator of any government building may designate the entire facility to be smoke-free. 
•  Persons in charge of government buildings may choose to specify a smoking area. It must be a separate room, which is not necessary for the public or employees to enter to conduct business. This smoking area must not deprive the public of an existing non-smoking or waiting area. 
•  Smoking may be allowed in public housing projects, public college dormitory rooms, and psychiatric facilities. 

• Smoking is prohibited in health care institutions except in designated smoking areas. 
•  Persons in charge of health care institutions may choose to designate a smoking area. It must be a separate room, which it is not necessary to enter to conduct business. This smoking area also must not deprive the public of an existing non-smoking area. 
•  This law applies to all hospitals, nursing homes, rest homes, homes for the elderly, home health care agencies, and to all infirmaries, both public and private. 
•  The Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services requires all state mental health facilities to be smoke-free, and The Joint Commission of Hospitals and Organizations requires its members to be smoke-free. 

• Smoking is prohibited in any area of a retail food store, which is open to the public.
• Any restaurant may designate itself entirely smoke-free. This includes supermarkets and convenience stores. 

•  All public areas of restaurants or cafeterias, which seat 75 or more (including the bar area), are to be smoke-free except in a specifically designated smoking area.
•  Any restaurant may designate itself entirely smoke-free. 
•  Private social function rooms may be designated as smoking or non-smoking as per restaurant policy or client request. 

•  Smoking is prohibited in all areas of public school buildings, without exception, while school is in session or student activities are taking place.
•  Smoking may be allowed in public college dormitory rooms.

•  Smoking is prohibited on any passenger elevator in the state, whether the facility is publicly or privately owned. 

•  All facilities must post appropriate signs in designated non-smoking and smoking areas. Sign and letter size are unspecified except for government buildings and public colleges. Restaurants must advise patrons with entryway signs indicating non-smoking seating is available. 
•  Anyone who fails to post these signs or who removes them without authorization can be arrested for committing an infraction of the law. 
•  Anyone who smokes in a mandated non-smoking area can be arrested for committing an infraction of the law. 
•  Fines are $35 to $99  

•  Local police and resident state troopers are the enforcement agents. Violations are to be reported to them. 
    

•  Employers of twenty or more individuals, in any enclosed facility, must establish non-smoking work areas for employees who request them. 
•  Any employer may make an entire facility smoke-free. 
•  The employer must post signs clearly indicating smoking and non-smoking areas. 
•  Existing physical barriers and ventilation should be used to the extent practicable to minimize the effect of smoke on adjacent non-smoking areas. 
• The Working Conditions Section of the Labor Department’s Wage and Workplace Standards Division is the enforcement agent. (860-263-6791).
•  The Commissioner of the Labor Department may exempt an employer from the law’s requirement if there is good faith effort to comply and if further effort would place an unreasonable burden on the employer. 

•    Smoking is prohibited in all child day care centers and group day care homes licensed by the State of Connecticut Department of Public Health, except in designated smoking areas. 
•  Designated smoking areas must be enclosed in a separate part of the facility, away from any children. 
•  The person in charge of the facility must place signs at all entrances indicating that smoking is prohibited except in designated areas. 
•  The Connecticut Department of Public Health, Community-based Regulations (860-509-8045) is the enforcement agency. 
•  Licenser requires adherence to Public Health Regulations. 

Other Connecticut laws and regulations prohibit smoking in the following areas: 

•  Theater auditoriums (Fire Safety Code, Section 29-109-113) 
•  Areas near flammable and combustible liquids (Fire Safety Code, 29-320 in accordance with NFPA code) 
•  Bakeries (CT Gen. Stat. 21a-157) 
•  Pasteurizing plants (CT Gen. Stat. 22-201) 
•  Food preparation and processing plants (Public Health Code, 19-13,B42)
•  Buses and railroad cars (CT Gen. Stat. 53-198)

•  The legal age for purchase of tobacco products is eighteen. 
•  Tobacco products include chewing tobacco, snuff, and smoking tobacco. 
•  Minors who illegally purchase tobacco products, or who falsely claim to be over eighteen years of age, can be fined $50 for the first offense and $100 for subsequent offenses. 
•  Anyone delivering tobacco to a minor can be fined up to $200 for the first offense and up to $350 for a subsequent offense within 18 months. 
•  A store clerk who sells tobacco to a minor can be fined $100 for the first offense and $150 for a subsequent offense within 18 months. 
•  The Department of Revenue Services Commissioner can suspend or revoke a dealer or distributor’s license for any sale or delivery of tobacco to a minor. Additionally, he will be fined $250 for the first offense and $500 for subsequent offenses. · Three convictions within an 18 month period will result in suspension of the dealer’s or distributor’s license in the case of an over the counter sale, or removal of the vending machine for one year in the case of a vending machine sale, as well as a $500 fine. · All coin-operated cigarette vending machines must be located in places restricted to adults. Businesses not able to meet this requirement must place their machines in direct view of a supervising adult employee, but in an entry, exit, vestibule, lobby, or rest room. 
•  By July, 1998 all businesses without an adult area must convert their machines to be “restricted” vending machines. A restricted vending machine sale requires that a salesperson make the age requirement identification and monetary exchange and then activate the machine to dispense a single pack of cigarettes. · Promotional giveaway of cigarettes is restricted to places licensed to sell tobacco or to places that are restricted to adults. The licensed dealer or distributor in charge of the giveaway is liable for illegal gift to a minor.
• All vendors of tobacco are to post the legal requirements for purchase at the point of sale, including the front of vending and restricted vending machines. 
•  The law allows towns and municipalities to impose more restrictive conditions on the use of vending machines for the sale of cigarettes. 
• Beginning January, 1998, and annually thereafter, the Commissioner of the Department of Revenue Services must report to the State General Assembly the number of unannounced inspections and the number of enforcement actions taken.
• To report violations or to request enforcement, contact your police department. 
• To report repeat violations, call Department of Revenue Services (860) 297-5650 

For further information on these laws, contact: The State of Connecticut Department of Public Health Bureau of Community Health Division of Health Education and Intervention 860-509-7802

For further information on youth access laws, contact: The State of Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services Tobacco Compliance Officer 
860-418-6940
Toll Free: 877-331-1999
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