Alabama lawmakers are looking a bill that would ban vaping in indoor public spaces. The new Alabama bill is called SB-9. It would prevent the use of vapes and e-cigarettes in public spaces. The legislation expands on the Alabama Indoor Clean Air Act introduced in 2003. This bill would rename the measure the Vivian Davis Figures Clean Indoor Air Act.
This isn’t the first time the State of Alabama and the vaping industry have clashed. The lawsuit Vapor Technology Association vs. Alabama ABC lawsuit was reportedly a significant victory for purveyors of this alternative to tobacco. A temporary restraining order remains in effect to stop enforcement of Alabama's vape law known as HB-8. The Alabama Supreme Court kept the injunction in place in December. This allowed vape shops to continue selling while the legal battle over federal preemption and the law's constitutionality continues in the courts.
Supporters of the SB-9 ban on vaping point to a 2025 report by the Alabama Department of Public Health. It lists over six thousand deaths in the state last year were attributable to smoking. More than half of those fatalities were due to heart problems and almost a thousand smokers died of cancer. Over seven hundred more deaths were linked to indirect exposure to smoking like prenatal fatalities and smoking-related fires. The report even included the total years of potential life lost being over two hundred forty thousand. If accepted, SB-9 would go into effect in October.
