Montana hearing draws youth and health groups urging lawmakers to add e-cigarettes to Clean Indoor Air Act

Senator Willis Kurdy, sponsor of Senate Bill 390, told the House Health and Human Services Committee that the bill would revise Montana's Clean Indoor Air Act to include ‘‘electronic smoking devices’’ and remove loopholes that allow vaping indoors. ‘‘Today I bring to you Senate Bill 390, a bill that revises the definition of smoking in the Clean Indoor Air Act and provides for a definition of electronic smoking device,’’ he said.

Dozens of largely student proponents described vaping as a daily reality in school restrooms and other public places and urged lawmakers to act. ‘‘By not including e-cigarettes, we might accidentally push the idea that e-cigarettes are safer than combustible cigarettes,’’ said Natalie Bohrer, a 16-year-old sophomore from Powell County High School, who testified in favor of the bill. Several students gave local figures during testimony, including one who said, ‘‘In my class of 98 kids, about 60 of those vape.’’ Pediatrician Lauren Wilson, immediate past president of the Montana chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Jean Branscum, CEO of the Montana Medical Association, backed the students and urged a due pass from the committee.

Health and advocacy groups—among them the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association—argued the bill would harmonize state law with evidence about aerosol exposures. Jackie Simmons of the American Heart Association said e-liquids break down when heated into irritants and carcinogens such as acrolein and formaldehyde and that adding e-cigarettes to the statute ‘‘would create uniform law, help streamline enforcement, and protect workers and children.’’

A lone in-person opponent, Greg Franks, owner of Summit Cigar Lounge in Billings, said his business invested heavily in ventilation and relied on a legal interpretation that cigar lounges are not covered by the Clean Indoor Air Act because they are not open to the general public. Franks asked the committee to consider tailored language to protect existing businesses and investments.

Nicole Aune of the Department of Public Health and Human Services, an informational witness, told the committee that DPHHS conducted about 1,000 compliance checks in fiscal 2024 and identified roughly 88 violations for sales to minors across all tobacco products; she cautioned that those figures include all products and that more detailed e-cigarette-specific data were not on hand for the hearing.

Committee members pressed for clarifications about flavored products, nicotine-free devices and the bill—s reach. DPHHS staff and the sponsor said the bill—s text covers electronic devices that create aerosol ‘‘in any manner or any form,’’ and that the language would include devices even if they claim to be nicotine-free. The sponsor noted separate legislation under consideration in the Senate regarding designated cigar bars and asked the committee for a due pass on SB 390.

The hearing closed with the sponsor thanking testimony participants and the chair closing the record. The committee did not take a vote at the hearing; the sponsor said he would reserve closing remarks and asked members to consider the public-health and youth-protection rationale for the change.