The Alabama House Health Committee passed legislation Wednesday that would restrict vaping in public areas under the state’s Clean Indoor Air Act.
Senate Bill 9, introduced by Senator Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, would add vapes—or “electronic nicotine delivery systems”—to the listed forms of “smoking” that are currently prohibited in enclosed public places under Alabama law.
Additionally, SB9 would rename the Alabama Clean Indoor Air Act to the “Vivian Davis Figures Clean Indoor Air Act” in honor of state Senator Vivian Figures, D-Mobile. Figures has been a longtime advocate for clean air regulations in the state and was instrumental in originally passing the Clean Indoor Air Act through an increasingly conservative state Legislature in 2003.
Allen explained the motivations behind the legislation in a statement recently provided to APR.
“Renaming this bill the ‘Vivian Davis Figures Clean Indoor Air Act,’ was to honor my colleague’s dedication to a better Alabama,” Allen said. “For more than a decade she has worked to promote clean air for our communities.”
“This issue transcends party lines—it affects every resident of our state,” Allen continued. “As time progresses, new forms of nicotine delivery systems continue to emerge, our laws must evolve to preserve their original purpose. In this case, the purpose was to protect public places from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Since the original passing of the [Alabama Clean Indoor Air Act], electronic nicotine delivery systems have become widespread. As a result, there is a clear need to expand the law to continue protecting the people of this great state.”
The House Health Committee quickly and unanimously passed SB9 Wednesday, sending the legislation to the House floor for further consideration.
If SB9 is ultimately signed into law, it would become another in a series of recent laws restricting the use, sale and possession of vapes in Alabama.
