The Senate OK’d a bill Thursday that limits the sale and use of electronic cigarettes.
The upper chamber passed H.171 on a vote of 24 to 5.
The Senate made few changes to the bill that cleared the House last month. The legislation bans the use of e-cigarettes indoors at workplaces and restaurants.
It also puts restrictions on how e-cigarettes may be sold. The Senate version of the bill requires they be displayed in stores in a locked box but does not include a provision in the House bill that prohibited their display on a sales counter.
Senators voted down two amendments that would have applied to the smoking of any materials.
One proposal, offered by Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, would have permitted smoking in bed-and-breakfasts that are entirely run by the owners.
A second proposal, from Sen. Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, would have eased a smoking ban on campuses of hospitals and residential facilities that are owned by the state or contracted by the state to provide substance abuse and mental health services.
A separate House bill, passed in late March, would put a 92 percent excise tax on e-cigarettes. Because that legislation passed after the deadline for bills to cross to the other chamber, it was referred to the Senate Rules Committee. It has not moved beyond that committee.
