Coloradans can’t use e-cigarettes inside or within 25 feet of commercial and government buildings starting Monday.
That’s when updating the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act took effect.
“We all deserve clean air to breathe without having to worry about secondhand smoke or breathing in vape chemicals,” Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan said in a statement. “It makes sense to align the law for traditional cigarettes with e-cigarettes.”
The law also takes away the option to designate smoking and nonsmoking areas and expands the definition of smoking to include synthetic marijuana and other plant products.
The main reason for adding vaping to Colorado’s smoking laws is to curb teen vaping, according to Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, the bill’s Democratic sponsor.
A 2018 study from the Centers for Disease Control showed vaped or used e-cigarettes — twice the national average. It put Colorado at No. 1 among 37 states surveyed about teen vaping.
“People often ask me, ‘Why do you think that will reduce vaping,'” Michaelson Jenet said. “Because it showed us a reduction when we did it for cigarettes. Part of that is we changed the cultural norm. We stopped saying this is so OK that we do it in public.”