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Smoking and Vaping

Promoting and Protecting Smoke-Free and Vapour-Free Spaces

There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
Smoke and vapour-free spaces protect you, your loved ones, and your community!

What are secondhand smoke and aerosol (vapour)? 

Secondhand smoke (SHS) is created when a cigarette (or other lit commercial tobacco product) is burned and breathed out by someone who is smoking. Secondhand vapour (which is actually an aerosol) is what is breathed out when someone is using an e-cigarette (or other vapour device).

The chemicals in secondhand smoke or aerosol vary based on the product used (cigarette, e-cigarette, cannabis, etc.) and whether the product is heated or burned.

When it comes to secondhand smoke, you can usually see or smell the smoke but what you can't see is the 7,000+ chemicals in the smoke including 70 that cause cancer. Secondhand smoke is filled with toxic chemicals like formaldhyde, benzene, chromium, nickel, vinyl chloride, arsenic, and carbon monoxide. There is no safe level of exposure.

Children are especially at risk from exposure to SHS because:

  • they breathe more air relative to body weight and as a result absorb more tobacco smoke toxins;
  • their immune systems are less protective; and 
  • they often can't speak for themselves or their complaints are ignored by adults.

Among children, exposure to SHS has been linked to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS); croup, pneumonia, tonsilitis; middle ear infections; increased asthma attacks and severity; childhood cancers and leukemia; slower growth; and poor attention span.

We don't know as much about secondhand aerosol (vapour) yet, but we do know the aerosol exhaled is NOT just harmless water vapour. It's a mixture of many small particles and chemicals, which is not safe for lungs to inhale.

Provincial laws and smoke and vapour-free policies help protect you, your loved ones, and your community from secondhand smoke and aerosol. Further, federal laws regulate smoke-free and vape-free spaces in federally-regulated public places and workplaces in our communities and municipal bylaws are often in place to protect residents and visitors from the harms of smoking and vaping.

To protect from secondhand commercial tobacco smoke and e-cigarette vapour (aerosol) including cannabis that is smoked and vaped, the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017 bans smoking and vaping in workplaces, public places, and certain outdoor areas including:

Indoors

  • In all enclosed public places, workplaces, private and public schools, work vehicles and in motor vehicles carrying children under 16 years of age. (Note: cannabis use is banned at all times in vehicles and/or boats being driven or under someone's care and control).
  • In all common areas of multi-unit housing buildings including apartment buildings, condos, and college and university residences. Examples of indoor common areas include: elevators, stairwells, hallways, parking garages, laundry facilities, lobbies, exercise areas, party or entertainment rooms.
  • In all places where an early years program or service is provided, and in places where home child care is provided even if children are not present. This includes any outdoor spaces that children use.
  • In a home where home health care workers work. 
  • In residential care facilities, including:
    •           -  long-term care homes
    •           -  retirement homes that provide care
    •           -  provincially funded supportive housing residences
  • In certain veterans' facilities.
  • In certain psychiatric facilities.
  • In residential hospices.

Outdoors

  • You cannot smoke or vape within 9 metres of any entrance or exit of a public or private hospital, psychiatric facility, long-term care home, or independent health facility.
  • On any outdoor hospital grounds or psychiatric facility grounds.
  • On bar and restaurant patios and within nine metres of the patio. 
  • On the grounds of private and public schools and community recreational facilities, and public areas within 20 metres of the grounds.
  • On playgrounds and publicly-owned sporting areas (including spectator areas), and public areas within 20 metres of those locations.
  • On outdoor licensed areas of child care centres.
  • On reserved outdoor seating areas at a sports arena or entertainment venue.
  • In outdoor shelters that have more than two walls and a roof (i.e. a bus shelter or an illegal smoking shelter with three or four walls and a roof).
  • On the outdoor grounds of specific office buildings owned by the province.

Hotels, Motels, and Inns

The only places you can smoke or vape in hotels, motels, and inns is in fully enclosed guest rooms that the management has designated for smoking and/or vaping. Only registered guests and their invited guests can smoke or vape in these rooms.

Smoking or vaping is not allowed on or around playgrounds at hotels, motels, and inns.

Employers, business owners, and public places must post provincial No Smoking and No Vaping signage at their premises including at entrances, exits, and washrooms, and in work vehicles. These signs are available at no cost from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.

Note: If you are an Indigenous person and live in a hospital, psychiatric facility, long-term care home, home for special care, community home for opportunity, or independent health facility, you may request an indoor area to use tobacco for traditional Indigenous cultural or spiritual purposes.

For the purposes of this page:

"smoking" means smoking (inhaling and exhaling) or holding lighted tobacco or cannabis (medical or recreational).

"vaping" means inhaling or exhaling vapour from an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) or holding an activated e-cigarette, whether or not the vapour contains nicotine, cannabis, or any other product or drug.

If you live in an apartment or condominium and have neighbours that smoke, you may have exposure to secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke can enter through shared ventilation, open windows and balcony doors, and through electrical receptacles and other openings such as gaps around plumbing pipes.

Tenants, landlords, and condo boards can find resources to support their transition to smoke-free housing on the health unit's website here.

Unlike elementary and secondary school properties, current laws do not protect students, staff, and faculty at Ontario's college and university campuses from secondhand smoke and aerosol. It is currently up to each college or university to implement their own policy, setting rules for commercial tobacco, vaping, and cannabis use on campus grounds.

By creating smoke and vapour-free post-secondary campuses, we can help young adults stay free of all types of smoke and vaping, protect others from secondhand smoke and aerosol, and support and encourage cessation among students, staff, and faculty.

Learn more and get your campus involved. Visit smokefreecampus.ca. 
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