Opinion ID: 170236
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: .The Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act

Text: On March 27, 2006, the Colorado legislature enacted, and then-Governor Bill Owens signed into law, the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act (CCIA), Colo.Rev.Stat. § 25-14-201, et seq. By its own terms, the CCIA became effective on July 1, 2006. The Colorado legislature offered the following rationale for enacting the CCIA: The general assembly hereby finds and determines that it is in the best interest of the people of this state to protect nonsmokers from involuntary exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in most indoor areas open to the public, public meetings, food service establishments, and places of employment. The general assembly further finds and determines that a balance should be struck between the health concerns of nonconsumers of tobacco products and the need to minimize unwarranted governmental intrusion into, and regulation of, private spheres of conduct and choice with respect to the use or nonuse of tobacco products in certain designated public areas and in private places. Therefore, the general assembly hereby declares that the purpose of [the CCIA] is to preserve and improve the health, comfort, and environment of the people of this state by limiting exposure to tobacco smoke. Colo.Rev.Stat. § 25-14-202 (Legislative declaration). Consistent with this legislative declaration, the CCIA provides that, in order to reduce the levels of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, smoking shall not be permitted and no person shall smoke in any indoor area. . . . Colo.Rev.Stat. § 25-14-204(1). The CCIA expressly exempts from this general prohibition a variety of indoor areas including, of relevance here, airport smoking concession[s], id. § 25-11-205(1)(f), which it defines as a bar or restaurant, or both, in a public airport-with regularly scheduled domestic and international commercial passenger flights, in which bar or restaurant smoking is allowed in a fully enclosed and independently ventilated area by the terms of the concession. Id. § 25-14-203(1). In addition to its general prohibition on smoking in indoor areas, the CCIA also makes it unlawful for (1) a person who owns, manages, operates, or otherwise controls the use of any indoor premises subject to the CCIA to violate any provision of the CCIA, and (2) a person to smoke in an area where smoking is prohibited by the CCIA. Colo.Rev.Stat. § 25-14-208(1), (2). Violations of these provisions are considered class 2 petty offense[s] under Colorado law and are penalized with escalating fines (from $200 to $500). Id. § (3).