JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida voters could get the chance to ban vaping in the workplace as early as next year.
The commission that oversees the state's constitution unanimously approved a proposal this week that would add the language to the 2018 ballot.
Florida law already bans smoking cigarettes inside most businesses.
Former state Senator Lisa Carlton says the 2002 ban passed by Florida voters was before electronic cigarettes and other devices became available. Even though research is unsure whether vaping or using e-cigarette‘s are as harmful as traditional cigarettes, people who don’t use them shouldn’t have to worry about it being done around them.
But others say something like this may not need a law.
“I think if someone wants to do it inside, they should have the common courtesy to ask the business owner if it’s OK,” said Adrian Suggs, owner of Motion Sweets in Riverside.
Suggs said people vaping or using e-cigarettes inside his business has never been an issue because no one's tried to.
“Normally, people who want to vape in this area, they do it out here. When they come inside our establishment, then they cut it off,” said Suggs.
He said he knows it’s a popular hobby. Just a few doors down is a vape shop. That store’s sign says its goal is simply to get people off cigarettes.
Arnold Rogers isn’t sure there is a need for a law though.
“I don’t know how annoying it would be to have somebody near me smoking a cigarette in a restaurant, I mean an e-cigarette, a regular cigarette I don’t want that. It’s very annoying,” said Rogers.
Suggs agrees the issue may not need a new law.
“I think it’s something that should be left to the individual business owner in terms of if it’s something they were allowed inside their establishment or directly outside of it,” said Suggs.
The proposal still has a long way to go in Tallahassee before it could make it to the ballot for voters to decide.