MADISON - Key Republican lawmakers oppose banning vaping indoors, putting in jeopardy a proposal to bar from businesses an activity that has been linked to serious illnesses and even death.

The bill to add vaping to the statewide indoor smoking ban was introduced by 45 lawmakers earlier this year amid growing evidence that vaping products have been used by those who have severe lung damage.

But leaders of two legislative committees assigned to consider the proposal said this week they have no plans to move it forward and want to leave the decision to bar vaping to business owners.

"I understand some people have concerns, but I believe this legislation is an overreach of state power," Sen. Duey Stroebel of Saukville told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a statement. "Ultimately, private property owners should have the freedom to choose if they want to allow or disallow the use of vapor products at their businesses."

Bill author Sen. Andre Jacque, R-De Pere, said he wasn't surprised the proposal wasn't moving forward.

"I thought it would be a little bit of an uphill climb," Jacque said. "At this point, certainly my hope is that we will do something to address vaping this session just because it really is something that has just skyrocketed with youth ... when you are imposing health effects on someone else by your use of a product — that’s the concern."

Dona Wininsky of the American Lung Association said by refusing to advance the bill, lawmakers are "forcing people to chose between their health and a good job."

"With all we’ve learned about how vaping can cause lung injury and even death, we should be doing everything we can to protect people from involuntary exposure to secondhand e-cigarette aerosol, whether from the person dining at the table next to us in the restaurant or the coworker a desk away," she said.

Thirty-two Democrats and 13 Republicans introduced the legislation that would ban vaping in areas where smoking cigarettes has been banned since 2010.

The lawmakers sought the new restrictions in August — about a week after doctors at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin announced 14 teenagers were hospitalized there with severe symptoms suspected to be tied to vaping, such as weight loss from vomiting and lung damage.

Nationwide, more than 1,600 people with lung injuries have told doctors they recently vaped THC or nicotine or both. Thirty-four people have died from vaping-related illness in 24 states, according to Centers for Disease Control data as of Oct. 22.

Stroebel won't hold a public hearing or a vote in the legislative committee he oversees to advance the legislation to the full Senate. Rep. Rob Swearingen of Rhinelander, who owns a supper club in northern Wisconsin, also doesn't plan to advance the bill in the Assembly's state affairs committee.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, a Republican from Juneau who is running for Congress, said on Oct. 24 he wouldn't rule out legislation seeking to raise the smoking and vaping age to 21 but didn't answer repeated questions this week from the Journal Sentinel about whether he plans to advance this bill.

A spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos also did not answer questions about the proposal.

The proposal has support in the governor's office, however. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said earlier this week he thought the idea was "reasonable."

"People are used to having restaurants and other places where they hang out be smoke-free and suddenly when that doesn’t happen I think that’s a problem for the entire state, so I think that’s a reasonable start,” he said in a televised interview on WKOW.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services, which has said vaping is unsafe, declined to comment on the proposal.

Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.