The OWWL Library System is committed to protecting the health, welfare, and safety of the visitors and employees by eliminating the use of tobacco products in and around its facility.
The OWWL Library System recognizes that:
- The U.S. Surgeon General has concluded that secondhand smoke is harmful to human health.
- Visible tobacco use contributes to the social acceptability, normalization, and perceived prevalence of tobacco use, factors which promote youth initiation and impede cessation.
- Tobacco products consumed in public spaces are often discarded on the ground, posing a risk of ingestion to children and animals, and incurring costly litter cleanup.
Therefore, the OWWL Library System prohibits tobacco use in the building and on the grounds. This restriction includes the use of all forms of smoking devices and smokeless tobacco products: cigarettes, cigars, pipes, e-cigarettes/electronic vapor products, snuff, snus and chewing tobacco.
This policy applies to all visitors, employees and volunteers.
This policy also upholds the recent amendment to Public Health Law §1399-o, which states, Smoking shall not be permitted and no person shall smoke within one hundred feet of the entrances, exits or outdoor areas of any public or association library as defined in subdivision two of section two hundred fifty-three of the education law; provided, however, that the provisions of this subdivision shall not apply to smoking in a residence, or within the real property boundary lines of such residential real property.
Compliance procedures
- Signs clearly designating areas where tobacco use is prohibited will be posted.
- A copy of the tobacco-free policy will be distributed to all employees.
- Employees shall advise their guests of the tobacco-free policy.
- Persons in violation of this policy will be asked to leave the premises.
Last Updated by the OWWL Library System Board of Trustees on March 8, 2023