Butte County, CA Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Sec. 15-153, amended most recently by Ord. No. 4100 in 2015, states that all enclosed facilities owned, leased or rented by the county are subject to the smoking article, and adds that no public employee or member of the public may smoke a tobacco product or operate an electronic smoking device in an outdoor area within twenty feet of a main exit, entrance or operable window of a county building. 'Electronic smoking device' is defined broadly in Sec. 15-152 to include e-cigarettes, e-cigars, e-cigarillos, electronic pipes and hookahs.

The county's Sec. 15-151 findings cite secondhand smoke's link to lung cancer, respiratory disease and harm to pregnant women, children and people with cardiovascular or respiratory conditions as the basis for the article, and separately flag formaldehyde, lead, nickel and nicotine found in electronic-cigarette vapor. The Butte County Health Officer or a designee administers and enforces the article under Sec. 15-158, which authorizes a correction notice, a civil injunction action, or criminal proceedings, and also lets a private citizen sue to enforce the article if the county does not.

No Smoking signage meeting a four-inch minimum diameter standard must be posted under Sec. 15-157 wherever smoking is regulated. Because Sec. 15-153's buffer is tied specifically to county-owned buildings rather than parks generally, it does not by itself reach every outdoor county park bench or trail, only the twenty-foot zone around building entrances, exits and operable windows on county property.