---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SURGICAL SMOKE."
description: "This Act requires health care employers to implement a smoke evacuation system for surgical procedures that generate surgical smoke."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "153"
identifier: "HB 173"
citation: "Delaware HB 173 (153)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bryan Townsend", "Edward S. Osienski", "Marie Pinkney", "Melissa Minor-Brown", "Sarah McBride", "Spiros Mantzavinos"]
version_count: 0
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2025-06-24"
last_action: "2025-08-25"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/cf0ea99d-8b05-4ff3-b174-c9d9bf524294"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=142611"
source_hash: "28479f9a18896c0865ac1a5dd2d2e4e27767b5e4b46992788e955dadc7b5fd1a"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 173 (153) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SURGICAL SMOKE.

This Act requires health care employers to implement a smoke evacuation system for surgical procedures that generate surgical smoke.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.


## Votes

- 2/3 — **21–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **40–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
- Edward S. Osienski — primary (person)
- Marie Pinkney — primary (person)
- Melissa Minor-Brown — primary (person)
- Sarah McBride — primary (person)
- Spiros Mantzavinos — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-06-24** Adopted in lieu of the original bill HB 173, and Assigned to Health & Human Development Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2025-06-24** Reported Out of Committee (Health & Human Development) in House with 3 Favorable, 8 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-06-26** Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 VACANT `passage`
- **2025-06-26** Assigned to Executive Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2025-06-30** Reported Out of Committee (Executive) in Senate with 3 Favorable, 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-06-30** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2025-08-25** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/cf0ea99d-8b05-4ff3-b174-c9d9bf524294`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).