Montana counties banning indoor vaping

BILLINGS, Mont. – Montana counties are starting to ban indoor vaping under the state’s Clean Indoor Air Act.

The Billings Gazette reports Yellowstone County’s indoor vaping ban takes effect on March 1. Missoula County is holding a public hearing on its proposed ban on Monday.

The Yellowstone County health board approved the rule banning vaping along with smoking inside public buildings.

People may not smoke or use electronic nicotine delivery systems within 20 feet of public building entryways, windows or ventilation systems to avoid secondhand smoke from drifting into public buildings.

Vaping, therefore, also would be illegal in shops that sell electronic cigarettes, but the chair of the health board noted enforcement is complaint driven.

Six other Montana counties have already banned indoor vaping. They are Lewis and Clark, Carbon, Powell, Sanders, Granite and Wibaux counties.