PACT Recommendation: Remove exemptions from the Clean Indoor Air Act (CIAA), extending full protection from the effects of secondhand smoke to all Pennsylvania workers. Remove preemption from CIAA, enabling any locality adopt and enforce indoor air regulations that set higher standards than the existing state law.
In Pennsylvania, over 1,306 venues are exempt from the Clean Indoor Air Act (CIAA), leaving many hospitality workers exposed to harmful carcinogens. Only by enacting a comprehensive law can we give all workers the protection they deserve. Current exemptions to the law include:
Clean Indoor Air Resources
- Bars with 20% or less revenue from food
- Casinos (up to 50% of the gaming floor)
- Hotel/Motels (up to 25% of rooms)
- Private clubs and private residences
- Tobacco Shops
- Cigar Bars
- Truck stops with shower facilities
- Outdoor sports, recreational facility, theater or performance establishment
- Tobacco manufacturer cigar exhibitions
- Non-profit fundraisers that feature tobacco products
Smoke-Free Laws Do Not Hurt Businesses
A study of air quality in the state’s hospitality industry before and after CIAA in locations across the state found that indoor air pollution levels in newly smoke-free venues declined by nearly 90 percent. ALA estimates that smoke-free air across all venues would save 52 hospitality workers’ lives annually.[i]
[i] Pennsylvania Department of Health. Chapter 7 of Act 77. Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation. State Fiscal Year July 1,2008-June 30, 2009 Annual Report.