---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY - LICENSING OF HEALTH CARE FACILITIES (Requires all hospitals and freestanding ambulatory surgical facilities to adopt policies to use a smoke evacuation system for surgical procedures that generate surgical smoke.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY - LICENSING OF HEALTH CARE FACILITIES (Requires all hospitals and freestanding ambulatory surgical facilities to adopt policies to use a smoke evacuation system for surgical procedures that generate surgical smoke.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2018"
identifier: "HB 7082"
citation: "Rhode Island HB 7082 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health & Safety", "Hospitals", "Licenses", "Medical"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bennett", "McLaughlin", "McNamara", "Messier", "Morin"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 14
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2018-01-10"
last_action: "2018-06-04"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/f167fcca-25b0-4969-bd52-798fb78029f5"
source_url: "http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/"
source_hash: "89cbf581bfb92a10ed87769f729fb4c2a85d660172ce6427ec55be603069d039"
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-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island HB 7082 (2018) — AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY - LICENSING OF HEALTH CARE FACILITIES (Requires all hospitals and freestanding ambulatory surgical facilities to adopt policies to use 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.

1. **7082** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText18/HouseText18/H7082.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **67–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bennett — primary (person)
- McLaughlin — primary (person)
- McNamara — primary (person)
- Messier — primary (person)
- Morin — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-01-10** 01/10/2018 Introduced, referred to House H.E.W. `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-02-09** 02/09/2018 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (02/14/2018)
- **2018-02-14** 02/14/2018 Committee recommended measure be held for further study
- **2018-02-19** 02/19/2018 Scheduled for consideration (02/28/2018)
- **2018-02-28** 02/28/2018 Committee recommends passage `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-03-09** 03/09/2018 Placed on House Calendar (03/14/2018)
- **2018-03-14** 03/14/2018 House read and passed `passage`
- **2018-03-27** 03/27/2018 Referred to Senate Health and Human Services `referral-committee`
- **2018-05-18** 05/18/2018 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (05/24/2018)
- **2018-05-24** 05/24/2018 Committee recommends passage in concurrence `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-05-29** 05/29/2018 Placed on the Senate Consent Calendar (05/30/2018)
- **2018-05-30** 05/30/2018 Senate passed in concurrence `passage`
- **2018-05-30** 05/30/2018 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2018-06-04** 06/04/2018 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/f167fcca-25b0-4969-bd52-798fb78029f5`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).