A survey of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) controls in California office buildings was carried out to obtain information on the type and distribution of ETS controls in office buildings and to evaluate the effectiveness of various ETS controls. A total of 118 smoking areas in 111 county and city buildings were inspected to collect information on the type of ETS controls. Only 31 % of the smoking areas inspected were physically separated from nonsmoking areas with full floor-to-true-ceiling walls, 25% exhausted air to the outside, and 38% did not recirculate air to non-smoking areas.