Public Act 099-0343
 
HB3531 EnrolledLRB099 08897 HAF 29070 b

    AN ACT concerning regulation.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 5. The Child Care Act of 1969 is amended by
changing Section 5.5 as follows:
 
    (225 ILCS 10/5.5)
    Sec. 5.5. Smoking in day care facilities.
    (a) The General Assembly finds and declares that:
        (1) The U.S. government has determined that secondhand
    tobacco smoke is a major threat to public health for which
    there is no safe level of exposure.
        (2) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently
    classified secondhand tobacco smoke a Class A carcinogen,
    ranking it with substances such as asbestos and benzene.
        (3) According to U.S. government figures, secondhand
    tobacco smoke is linked to the lung-cancer deaths of an
    estimated 3,000 nonsmokers per year.
        (4) Cigarette smoke is a special risk to children,
    causing between 150,000 and 300,000 respiratory infections
    each year in children under 18 months old, and endangering
    between 200,000 and one million children with asthma.
        (5) The health of the children of this State should not
    be compromised by needless exposure to secondhand tobacco
    smoke.
    (b) It Beginning January 1, 1994, it is a violation of this
Act for any person, on any day when the center is in operation,
to smoke tobacco in any area of a day care center in which
children are allowed, regardless of whether or not any children
are present at that moment.
    (c) It Beginning January 1, 1994, it is a violation of this
Act for any person to smoke tobacco in any area of a day care
home or group day care home in which day care services are
being provided to children, while those children are present.
This subsection does not prohibit smoking in the home in the
presence of a person's own children or of children to whom day
care services are not then being provided.
    (d) It is a violation of this Act for any person
responsible for the operation of a day care center, day care
home, or group day care home to knowingly allow or encourage
any violation of subsection (b) or (c) of this Section.
(Source: P.A. 88-95.)
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.