POLICY STATEMENT
The Patten Free Library is dedicated to providing its employees and patrons with a safe and healthy environment and is dedicated to a 100% smoke and tobacco-free campus.
The Patten Free Library recognizes that smoking and the use of tobacco products on our grounds is detrimental to the health and safety of everyone. This institution supports an environment where employees and patrons are not exposed to the harmful effects of secondhand smoke and are supported in efforts to live tobacco-free. Therefore, the Patten Free Library has adopted a 100% tobacco-free policy which exceeds state law (22 M.R.S.A. § 1580-A).
This policy prohibits all smoking and the use of all tobacco:
The smoke and tobacco-free campus policy applies to all employees and patrons including organizers of, and attendees at, public events, including but not limited to, conferences, meetings, lectures, social events and/or cultural events using Patten Free Library owned, leased and affiliated property are required to abide by Patten Free Library’s Smoke and Tobacco-Free Policy.
DEFINITIONS
A. “Smoking” means inhaling, exhaling, burning or carrying any lighted or heated cigar, cigarette, pipe or joint, or any other lighted or heated tobacco or plant product intended for inhalation, including hookahs and marijuana, whether natural or synthetic in any manner or in any form. “Smoking” also includes the use of an electronic smoking device which creates an aerosol or vapor, in any manner or in any form, or the use of any oral smoking device for the purpose of circumventing the prohibition of smoking in this policy. Non-smoked marijuana products including, but not limited to, edibles and dabs are also included in this policy.
B. “Tobacco” is defined as all tobacco-derived or containing products, including but not limited to, cigarettes, cigars, little cigars, cigarillos, bidis, kreteks; all smokeless and dissolvable tobacco products, including but not limited to, dip, spit/spit-less, chew, snuff, snus and nasal tobacco; and any product intended to mimic tobacco, containing tobacco flavoring or delivering nicotine, including but not limited to, electronic nicotine delivery systems, e-cigarettes, e-cigars, e-hookahs, vape pen or any other product name or descriptor. Or the use of any other type of tobacco or nicotine product for the purpose of circumventing the prohibition of tobacco in this policy. This does not include products specifically approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the purpose of cessation or nicotine replacement therapy.
PROCEDURES
This policy will be communicated through tobacco-free signs, through employee education, including being written into training manuals and new employee orientation.
Everyone is required to comply with the Patten Free Library’s tobacco-free policy. Enforcement of this policy will follow the standard procedures of the facility.
Tobacco treatment information is available for those interested in quitting, including information about the Maine QuitLink (1-800-QUIT-NOW or www.MaineQuitLink.com). The Maine QuitLink offers a variety of phone and web-based quit service options that are free, friendly, and confidential.
Approved by the Board of Trustees 4/10/18
Reviewed 9/12/22; no substantive changes
