Smoke-Free Businesses

Operating a Smoke-Free Business

The Colorado Clean Air Act of 2006 requires indoor areas to be smoke-free, from restaurants and bars to grocery stores and indoor sports arenas. Exceptions include:

  • Businesses with three or fewer employers that do not allow access to the public
  • Cigar tobacco bars
  • Limousines under private hire
  • Residences, unless used for daycare or child care
  • Retail tobacco businesses
  • The smoking lounge at Denver International Airport

There are measures created for an exemption for assisted-living facilities to allow smoking in designated areas that are fully enclosed, ventilated and accessible only to residents and their guests.

Smoke-Free Zones

Included in the smoke-free zone are:

  • Billiards and pool halls
  • Child and elder-care facilities
  • Grocery and retail stores
  • Hospitals, clinics, and other health-care facilities
  • Indoor sports arenas and performance halls
  • Libraries and schools
  • Public meetings and courtrooms
  • Private residences serving as child care facilities during business hours
  • Restrooms, lobbies, hallways and elevators

Smoking is also no longer permitted in the following other places in:

  • Any partially or fully enclosed structure used by the public to wait for public transit service
  • Buses, taxicabs
  • gondolas
  • Other means of public transit

Designated Smoking Areas

Smoking is allowed in the following indoor public places at the discretion of the property owner or manager:

  • Guest lodging rooms including hotels, motels, condos, bed and breakfasts', and townhomes
  • Private clubs not open to the public
  1. Are all restaurants and bars smoke-free in this ordinance?
  2. Can employees smoke in a break room or designated smoking office?
  3. Can you smoke on patios and decks outside of a restaurant or bar?