Workplace Smoking Rules in Louisiana

Employers in Louisiana must comply with these state rules regulating smoking in the workplace.

The Louisiana Smokefree Air Act generally prohibits smoking in public areas and enclosed places of employment.

Employers covered: The Smokefree Air Act applies to any individual or business with one or more employees.

Posting requirements: "No Smoking" signs or the international "No Smoking" symbol consisting of a pictorial representation of a burning cigarette enclosed in a red circle with a red bar across it must be clearly and conspicuously posted by the owner, operator, manager, or other person in control in every public building, public place, and place of employment where smoking is prohibited by the Louisiana Smokefree Air Act.

No smoking areas: Smoking is prohibited in the following areas:

• any public building
• any school
• any public place
• any enclosed area within a place of employment

An employer may not knowingly permit smoking in any enclosed area within a place of employment.

The Louisiana Smokefree Air Act does not restrict the power of any parish, city, town, or village to adopt and enforce additional local laws, ordinances, or regulations that comply with at least the minimum applicable standards to establish smokefree public places as set forth in the law.

Permitted smoking areas: The following areas are generally exempt from the Louisiana Smokefree Air Act smoking prohibition:

• private homes, private residences, and private automobiles, except when used for child care or if a private vehicle is being used for the public transportation of children or as part of health care or day care transportation
• limousines under private hire
• hotel or motel rooms designated as smoking rooms and rented to guests, provided that a maximum of 50 percent of the rooms, at the discretion of the hotel owner or general manager, available for rent to guests may be designated as smoking rooms
• retail tobacco businesses
• outdoor areas of places of employment except that the owner or manager of the business may post signs prohibiting smoking in any such outdoor area, which has the effect of making the outdoor area an area in which smoking is prohibited under law
• private and semiprivate rooms or apartments in assisted living residences and other long-term care facilities that are occupied by one or more persons, all of whom are smokers and have requested in writing to be placed in a room where smoking is permitted, provided that smoke from these places does not infiltrate into areas where smoking is prohibited by law
• designated smoking areas in which gaming operations are permitted to occur upon a riverboat, at the official gaming establishment, at a facility licensed for the operation of electronic video draw poker devices, at an eligible facility licensed for the operation of slot machines, by a licensed charitable organization, or at a pari-mutuel wagering facility or off-track wagering facility which is licensed for operation and regulated under the law, or any other gaming operations authorized by law, except that smoking is prohibited in all restaurants, including snack bars and any other type of eating area whether or not the area is separated from the gaming area, that are located within the facilities where gaming operations are conducted regardless of any type of license issued relevant to the operation of the restaurant
• all workplaces of any manufacturer, importer, wholesaler or distributor of tobacco products, of any tobacco leaf dealer or processor, and all tobacco storage facilities
• convention facilities during the time the facilities are being used for professional meetings and trade shows which are not open to the public that are produced or organized by tobacco businesses or convenience store associations where tobacco products are displayed and limited to the location of such meetings or shows and during the time the facilities are used by a carnival organization, traditionally known as a krewe or a courir de Mardi Gras for the purpose of a Mardi Gras ball and limited to the location of the ball
• designated and well-ventilated smoking rooms in nursing homes which permit smoking
• hotel or motel rooms operated by casinos and gaming operations which are rented to guests
• outdoor patios, whether or not food is served