Ohio Smoke-Free Workplace Act: Coverage, Exemptions, and Penalties

The Ohio Smoke-Free Workplace Act, found at Chapter 3794 of the Ohio Revised Code, bans smoking in virtually every indoor public place and workplace in the state. It protects employees and the public from secondhand smoke by requiring smoke-free environments in covered locations and by fining both proprietors who allow smoking and individuals who refuse to stop when asked.

What the Law Means by Smoking

Smoking means inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying any lighted or heated tobacco or plant product intended for inhalation.¹ That reaches cigarettes, cigars, pipes, hookah, and heated tobacco devices.

Electronic cigarettes and standard vape devices sit in a gray area. Most e-cigarettes heat a nicotine liquid rather than a tobacco product, so they may not fall within the statutory definition. The Act was written before vaping became widespread, and Ohio regulates e-cigarettes separately under its Tobacco 21 law for sales purposes. Some Ohio municipalities have passed local ordinances that explicitly add e-cigarettes to their indoor smoking bans, so the answer can depend on the city.

Where the Ban Applies

Public Places

A public place under the Act is any enclosed area where the general public is invited or permitted to enter, other than a private residence.² Restaurants, bars, retail stores, shopping malls, theaters, government buildings, libraries, and public transportation facilities all qualify. If the public can walk through the door, the space is almost certainly covered.

What makes a space “enclosed” is a roof or other overhead covering plus walls or side coverings on all sides, or all sides but one.² The roof doesn’t have to be permanent. Substantial awnings or umbrellas over a patio can qualify, and once the walls or coverings are in place, smoking is prohibited there just as it would be inside.³

An outdoor patio where smoking is allowed must be truly open to the air, with unobstructed circulation reaching all parts of the space. A patio is presumed open to the air when no more than 50 percent of the combined surface area of its sides is covered by walls or barriers.³

Workplaces

A place of employment is any enclosed area under an employer’s control that employees use for work or any other purpose. That reaches far beyond the main work floor: offices, meeting rooms, break rooms, restrooms, hallways, stairways, warehouses, garages, and storage areas are all covered.² The time of day doesn’t matter, and the space is covered even when no employee happens to be present.

Company Vehicles

An enclosed motor vehicle used for business is covered whenever a nonsmoking person occupies it, and vehicles in a company motor pool shared by nonsmoking employees are covered as well.² Delivery drivers, sales staff, and anyone traveling in a company vehicle during the workday are protected. Tourist or scenic railcars operating exclusively in Ohio are also included.

Outdoor Areas Near Doors and Vents

The ban extends past the walls of the building. Proprietors may not allow smoking in outdoor areas immediately adjacent to entrances, exits, windows, or ventilation intakes that they control.⁴ They also have to take reasonable steps to keep smoke from drifting back inside through those openings.³

The statute doesn’t set a specific distance from doorways. Some municipalities, including Columbus, have adopted 20- to 25-foot buffer zones locally, but the state rule simply requires that the distance be enough to keep smoke out. Proprietors need to think about where doors, windows, and HVAC intakes sit, and about typical wind patterns, when they decide where to direct smokers. A proprietor isn’t held responsible when smoke enters from an area beyond their control.³

Who Is Exempt

The Act carves out a short list of exemptions, each with strict conditions. If a location doesn’t fit squarely within one of them, the general ban applies.⁵

Private Residences

A home is generally exempt. The exemption disappears during hours when the residence operates as a licensed childcare or adult care facility, or when it functions as a business with employees present who don’t live there and aren’t related to the owner.⁶ Running a daycare out of your home, for example, means no smoking during business hours.

Hotels and Motels

Lodging facilities may designate up to 20 percent of their sleeping rooms for smoking. Those rooms have to be clearly identified, and smoke can’t migrate into nonsmoking rooms or into common areas like hallways and lobbies.⁵

Family-Owned Businesses

A business where every employee is related to the owner may allow smoking, but only if the space isn’t open to the public, occupies a freestanding building used solely by that business, and smoke doesn’t drift into any area where smoking is prohibited.⁶ One unrelated employee ends the exemption.

Nursing Homes

Nursing homes may provide a designated indoor smoking room for residents. Only residents may use it, no employee can be required to enter or perform services there while it’s in use, and the room must be separately enclosed and ventilated so smoke doesn’t reach the rest of the building.⁶

Retail Tobacco Stores

Tobacco shops in operation before December 7, 2006 are exempt, but they have to file an annual affidavit with the Ohio Department of Health by January 31 reporting what percentage of their gross income came from tobacco product sales the prior year. A tobacco store that opened after that date, or an existing one that relocates, qualifies only if it occupies a freestanding building used solely by that business and its smoke doesn’t reach any area where smoking is banned.⁶ A change in ownership alone doesn’t strip the exemption from a pre-2006 store.

Private Clubs

A nonprofit private club holding a valid D-4 liquor permit may allow smoking only if it meets every one of these conditions: the club has no employees, only members are present in the building, no one under 18 is inside, the club occupies a freestanding structure used solely by the club, and smoke doesn’t migrate into areas where smoking is prohibited.⁵ A single paid employee or a non-member in the building disqualifies the club.

What Proprietors Have to Do

Every covered public place and workplace must display “No Smoking” signs or the international no-smoking symbol at each entrance and throughout the premises. Signs have to be large enough to read from across the area they cover, and each one must include a phone number for reporting violations. All ashtrays and smoking-material receptacles have to be removed from any area where smoking is banned.⁷

Signs alone are not enough. If someone lights up inside, the proprietor or staff must ask the person to stop. The law expects proprietors to take reasonable steps to enforce the ban on their premises.³

Penalties

The Act runs two separate penalty tracks, one for proprietors and employers and one for individual smokers.

Proprietor Fines

Fines for proprietors who allow smoking or fail to post proper signage follow a progressive schedule, and the Ohio Department of Health doesn’t jump straight to a fine. The first violation produces a warning letter.⁸ After that:

Second violation: $100
Third violation: $500
Fourth violation: $1,000
Fifth or later violation: $2,500

Each day a violation continues counts as a separate offense, and fines are doubled for intentional violations.⁹

Smoker Fines

A person who refuses to stop smoking in a covered location when asked by the proprietor or an employee faces a fine of up to $100 per violation.⁹ Lack of intent to violate the law is not a defense.⁴

Protection From Retaliation

Employers can’t fire, refuse to hire, or retaliate in any way against someone who reports a violation or exercises any right under the Act.⁴ Retaliation carries its own fine schedule, reaching $2,500 by the third offense.⁸ Employees who worry about being written up for calling in a complaint have legal cover.

How to Report a Violation

The Ohio Department of Health’s Smoke Free Workplace Program investigates reported violations. Complaints trigger the investigation; the department doesn’t run random inspections. You can report a violation by calling 1-866-559-6446, emailing NoSmoke@odh.ohio.gov, or filing a complaint online through the department’s website.¹⁰

Public Housing: A Separate Federal Rule

If you live in public housing in Ohio, a federal rule adds a second layer. Since July 2018, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has required every public housing agency in the country to ban smoking inside all living units, common areas, and administrative buildings, and outdoors within 25 feet of those buildings. The federal rule covers cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and hookahs at a minimum, and housing agencies may make their entire grounds smoke-free. Designated outdoor smoking areas have to sit outside the 25-foot perimeter.¹¹ For Ohio public housing residents, the state Act and the federal rule apply at the same time.

1
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code Section 3794.01
2
Legal Information Institute. Ohio Admin Code 3701-52-01 – Definitions
3
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Admin Code Rule 3701-52-02
4
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code Section 3794.02
5
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 3794.03
6
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code Section 3794.03
7
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 3794.06 – Posting of Signs, Prohibition of Ashtrays, Responsibilities of Proprietors
8
Legal Information Institute. Ohio Admin Code 3701-52-10 – Civil Fines and Penalties
9
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code Section 3794.07
10
Ohio Department of Health. Smoke Free Workplace Program
11
eCFR. Smoke-Free Public Housing