Several new laws go into effect next week, including a ban on vaping in indoor workplaces.
The vaping ban that takes effect July 1 is an extension of the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act, originally passed in 1985 to protect people from secondhand smoke, and modified several times over the last 30 years.
Tobacco smoking was banned from indoor workplaces in 2003. Now the law includes e-cigarettes (SB 7012.)
Laura Corbin, Bureau Chief of Tobacco Free Florida, said the amendment will help change the culture around smoking
"The use of e-cigarettes in public places and indoors could renormalize tobacco smoking and reverse the steady declines we've made in youth cigarette smoking,” Corbin said.
The law does not prohibit vaping inside private residences, retail tobacco shops, stand-alone bars or hotel rooms where smoking is allowed.
The long-term health effects of e-cigarette use, or vaping, are still unknown,” Corbin said, “But we know that e-cigarette aerosol is not harmless water vapor. The aerosol that users breathe and exhale can contain harmful and potentially harmful substances."
Nearly 70% of voters last year supported the vaping ban in an amendment that also banned oil and gas drilling off Florida’s shorelines.
Several other new laws take effect next Monday, too, including a ban in texting while driving, a bill Friday that will protect young people from legal penalties if they are drinking underage and call for medical help, and a law that will allow paramedics to carry firearms when responding to shootings, drug raids and other high-risk situations.
