MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WDNews) — A bill that would ban vaping in most enclosed public places across Alabama advanced Wednesday after clearing the Senate Committee on Healthcare.
The proposal, Senate Bill 9, would update the state’s Clean Indoor Air Act to include electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices under the same restrictions that currently apply to smoking. The bill now heads to the full Alabama Senate for consideration.
The Clean Indoor Air Act, passed in 2003, prohibits smoking in most enclosed public spaces, including restaurants, retail stores, government buildings, hospitals, nursing homes, shopping malls, elevators, airports and banks. Violations are punishable by a $25 fine.
Senate Bill 9 is sponsored by Gerald Allen, a Republican from Cottondale. The legislation would add “the use of an electronic nicotine delivery system” to the legal definition of smoking in state law.
Allen told lawmakers he reintroduced the bill after encountering vaping at football games, including at a high school stadium and at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The senator proposed similar legislation during the 2025 session, but the measure did not pass.
In addition to expanding the ban, the bill would rename the law the Vivian Davis Figures Clean Indoor Air Act, honoring Vivian Davis Figures, who spent several years working to pass the original smoking ban.
Research cited during discussion included a study published by the National Library of Medicine, which found that indoor vaping can expose nonusers to nicotine, though not to the toxic combustion byproducts found in secondhand cigarette smoke.
If approved by the full Senate and later passed by the House, the measure would place vaping under the same public-use restrictions already enforced statewide for smoking.
