Lexington County, SC Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

The county's smoking ordinance, adopted under Sec. 14-621, primarily bans smoking inside enclosed workplaces and work spaces in the unincorporated areas of the county, but it extends the prohibition outdoors immediately around those buildings. Subsection (g), titled "Reasonable distance," states: "In the unincorporated area of the county, smoking is prohibited within a distance of ten feet from any door which is used as an entrance to or exit from an enclosed area where smoking is prohibited so as to insure that tobacco smoke or vapor does not enter the area through the entry.

" The definition of "smoking" in subsection (c)(7) covers "the inhaling, exhaling, burning, lighting or carrying of a lighted cigarette, cigar, pipe, or similar device or any other lighted tobacco product and includes vaping," so the buffer applies equally to vape devices. Subsection (d)(3) also lets any owner, operator, or manager voluntarily declare an entire outdoor area, a patio, courtyard, or grounds, a nonsmoking location by posting a sign that meets subsection (f)'s requirements, extending the ban well past the ten-foot minimum if the property owner chooses.

The article carves out limited exceptions in subsection (e): private residences, a capped share of hotel and motel smoking rooms, licensed retail tobacco stores, private clubs with no employees, and religious ceremonies where smoking is part of the ritual, but none of those exceptions apply to the outdoor ten-foot zone around a covered workplace entrance.