MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WDNews) — Vaping in public places would be banned in Alabama under a bill introduced by state Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale.
Allen’s proposal would expand the Alabama Clean Indoor Air Act of 2003, which prohibits smoking in most enclosed public spaces, including restaurants, retail stores, government buildings, airports, banks, and hospitals. Violators face a $25 fine.
The bill would add “the use of an electronic nicotine delivery system” to the law’s definition of smoking. Allen sponsored similar legislation last year, but it failed to pass.
Alabama enacted its public smoking ban more than two decades ago, following the Environmental Protection Agency’s classification of secondhand smoke as a known human carcinogen in the 1990s.
A study published by the National Library of Medicine found that vaping indoors may expose nonusers to nicotine, though not to the toxic combustion products present in secondhand tobacco smoke. The report called for further research into the health impacts of secondhand nicotine exposure, particularly among vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant women and people with cardiovascular conditions.
The bill would also rename the statute the Vivian Davis Figures Clean Indoor Air Act, honoring Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, who spent about six years working to pass the original legislation.
The 2025 legislative session begins Jan. 13.
