People could not use e-cigs or vape in public areas or workplaces, under a bill to expand Minnesota’s Clean Indoor Air Act that the House passed on a strong vote (100-25) tonight. Farmington Republican Pat Garofalo voted “no”. “Some people still actually believe in letting people make their own personal choices and having personal freedoms, without having the nanny state tell ’em what to do,” he says. But Golden Valley Democrat Mike Freiberg says the “personal freedom” argument is misplaced. “When I go out in a public place, I don’t want to breathe products that… we don’t know what’s in them,” Freiberg says.
Red Wing Republican Barb Haley also supports the bill, “in an effort to stem what my high school principal called the tsunami of addiction coming to the next generation.”