Philadelphia, PA Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Section 10-602, titled "The Clean Indoor Air Worker Protection Law," took effect January 8, 2007 and bars smoking in a long list of enclosed places (offices, retail stores, schools, health care facilities, workplaces, and common areas of apartment buildings and lodging establishments), but two of its subsections extend the ban outdoors. Subsection (3)(a)(.7) prohibits smoking "outdoors within twenty (20) feet of any entrance to any Enclosed Area in which smoking is prohibited under this Section," so the entrance buffer travels with every covered indoor space, not just one category of building. Subsection (3)(a)(.8) separately bans smoking "at any sidewalk cafe licensed under Section 9-208 or otherwise permitted by special ordinance, or any outdoor deck, patio or similar outdoor service area which is part of a Food or Beverage Establishment," a term the Code defines broadly to include restaurants, bars, coffee shops, cafeterias and catering facilities.

The Section carves out narrow exceptions: Tobacco Products Distribution Businesses, Specialty Tobacco Establishments where 15% or more of gross sales come from tobacco products, and up to 25% of the sleeping quarters in a Lodging Establishment. Owners, operators and managers avoid citation only if they post required "No Smoking" signage, inform violators that smoking is prohibited and ask them to stop or leave, and report noncompliance to the Health Department. Enforcement is handled by the Health Department or its authorized employees, using the Section 1-112 notice-of-violation process, and the law expressly creates no private right of action, meaning individuals cannot sue to enforce it themselves.