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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF- COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: February 19, 2008 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. -+ - h <br />SUBJECT: Amendments to the Orange County Ordinance Regulating Smoking in Buildings <br />Owned by or Leased to Orange County and Motor Vehicles Owned by or <br />Leased to Orange County <br />DEPARTMENT: Health PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />Personnel <br />County Manager <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Amendments to the Orange County <br />Ordinance Regulating Smoking in <br />Buildings Owned by or Leased to <br />Orange County and Motor Vehicles <br />Owned by or'Leased to Orange County <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Rosemary Summers, 245-2411 <br />Michael McGinnis, 245-2550 <br />Laura Blackmon, 245-2300 <br />Memorandum to Moses Carey, 9/14/05 <br />PURPOSE: To consider adopting a County ordinance that would regulate smoking in County <br />buildings and motor vehicles owned by or leased to Orange County. <br />BACKGROUND: In 2006, the Surgeon General published a report on the health consequences <br />of involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke with scientific evidence that indicates that there is no <br />risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Furthermore, that report documents that <br />separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air and ventilating smoke cannot eliminate <br />exposure to secondhand smoke. There is an increasing public recognition of the hazards of <br />tobacco use. In Orange County, both school districts are tobacco free in buildings and grounds; <br />UNC Health Care is tobacco free in buildings and grounds.; and UNC has just recently become a <br />tobacco free campus. <br />In 2005, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a law that allowed local governments to <br />make buildings housing health departments and social services departments tobacco free within <br />50 linear feet of each building. During the 2007 legislative session, a law passed that allowed <br />all local governments to make buildings owned or leased by the local government and all public <br />transportation vehicles owned by the local government tobacco free, retaining the provision for <br />health and social service grounds from the 2005 legislation. In September 2005, the Orange <br />County Board of Health requested that the County Commissioners consider an ordinance that <br />would make health and social service buildings tobacco free within the 50 foot limit allowed by <br />the law. The Board of Health continues to support the opportunity to protect employees and the <br />public from the effects of second hand smoke and tobacco use whenever possible. The Orange <br />County Employee Consortium has also expressed interest and support for this effort.