(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- All Vermont workplaces become smoke free today as a new state law goes into effect, banning the designated smoking areas that were allowed under the previous law.

Public places have been virtually smoke free since the 1987 Smoking in the Workplace law was passed, and then updated under the Clean Indoor Air act of 1993.

Those laws permitted businesses to have segregated areas indoors where smokers could light up.

The new law, which lawmakers approved this past session, makes it illegal to smoke anywhere inside a public building.

"We have known about the dangers of second-hand smoking for many years," said Sheri Lynn, tobacco control program chief at the Vermont Department of Health. "People used to think some ventilation would help but there are no levels of safe exposure. This is about protecting public health."

The health department does not know how many businesses allow smoking, but in a 2008 survey, 21 percent of those employees who work inside most of the time reported they had breathed smoke from someone else's cigarette at their workplace in the past year.

Employees at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant are not allowed to smoke anywhere inside and at Sonnax, in Rockingham, the company does not even allow smoking on the property.

The new law will remove any debate about whether there are ways to control smoking indoors and will also encourage business owners to

remove the designated smoking areas.

There are no exemptions, Lynn said, and barns and other agricultural buildings are covered by the new law.

"We think this is going to make it easier for employers," Lynn said. "In the past, they could have designated smoking areas and that could make it difficult. This way, it is easy to move all smoking outdoors."

Businesses that do not enforce the new law could face $100 penalties.

Under the old law, businesses could set up smoking rooms if there was no detected irritation outside the designated room and if 75 percent of the employees agreed on the way the space was set up in the workplace.

Businesses with more than 10 employees who work more than 15 hours per week had to post the company's smoking policy.

Starting today, workers will be protected from the health dangers associated with second-hand smoke.

Chris Finley, Vermont's deputy commissioner of public health, said the change will have an impact on health outcomes around the state.

"Experience in other states has clearly demonstrated the smoking bans at the work site and in public places lead to immediate and prolonged decreases in heart attacks," said Finley. "With this change in the law, all Vermont employees will be protected from exposure inside the workplace."

Copyright (C) 2009, Brattleboro Reformer, Vt.