Bill Text: NY S07259 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced


Bill Title: Enacts the tobacco product waste reduction act prohibiting the sale or offering for sale of cigarettes utilizing single-use filters and single-use electronic cigarettes.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-14 - REFERRED TO HEALTH [S07259 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S07259-Introduced.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          7259

                    IN SENATE

                                    January 14, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced by Sens. KRUEGER, KAMINSKY -- read twice and ordered printed,
          and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health

        AN  ACT  to  amend  the  public  health law, in relation to enacting the
          tobacco product waste reduction act

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  This  act shall be known and may be cited as the "tobacco
     2  product waste reduction act".
     3    § 2. Legislative findings. The  legislature  finds  and  declares  the
     4  following:
     5    1.  The use of tobacco products causes death and disease and continues
     6  to be an urgent public health challenge. The United States Department of
     7  Health and Human Services and the New York State  Department  of  Health
     8  have reported the following:
     9    a.  Tobacco-related  illness is the leading cause of preventable death
    10  in the United States, accounting for about  480,000  deaths  each  year,
    11  including 28,200 New York adults.
    12    b.  Annually  in New York State, 10,600 youth become new daily smokers
    13  and an estimated 280,000 New York youth now alive will  die  early  from
    14  smoking.
    15    c.  Tobacco use can cause chronic lung disease, diabetes, eye disease,
    16  rheumatoid arthritis, coronary heart disease, stroke, ectopic pregnancy,
    17  and infertility, in addition  to  leukemia  and  cancer  of  the  lungs,
    18  larynx,  colon,  liver,  esophagus,  pancreas,  kidney, cervix, bladder,
    19  stomach, and mouth.
    20    d. Tobacco-related  health  care  annually  costs  New  Yorkers  $10.4
    21  billion, including $3.3 billion in Medicaid expenses.
    22    2.   Cigarette filters, also known as butts, do not improve the safety
    23  or healthfulness of cigarettes or other tobacco products,  and  research
    24  indicates  that  they likely increase the negative public health effects
    25  of tobacco products.
    26    a. According to a 2014 Surgeon General's  report,  "evidence  suggests
    27  that  ventilated  filters  may  have contributed to higher risks of lung

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD13545-03-9

        S. 7259                             2

     1  cancer by enabling smokers to inhale more  vigorously,  thereby  drawing
     2  carcinogens contained in cigarette smoke more deeply into lung tissue."
     3    b.  The perception that filtered cigarettes are safer encourages smok-
     4  ing and leads to increased public  harm.  In  2010,  the  United  States
     5  joined  Canada and the EU in prohibiting the use of tobacco packaging or
     6  advertising using terms like "light," "mild," or "low," which convey the
     7  false impression that filters reduce risk.
     8    c. A 2017 study from the National Cancer  Institute  recommended  that
     9  "the  FDA should consider regulating {filter use}, up to and including a
    10  ban."
    11    3. Electronic cigarettes and similar products pose health hazards  and
    12  may  contribute  to youth smoking and reduced smoking cessation, regard-
    13  less of nicotine content.
    14    a. These products contain or produce  chemicals  other  than  nicotine
    15  known  to  be toxic, carcinogenic and causative of respiratory and heart
    16  distress.
    17    b. Emissions from these products may contain particulate matter, harm-
    18  ful to those exposed, including bystanders  involuntarily  exposed.  The
    19  United  States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has presented evidence
    20  of nicotine and other toxicants in exhaled electronic cigarette  aerosol
    21  and stated exposure should be limited.
    22    c. Nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes are the most common nico-
    23  tine  products  used  by  students,  with  three million middle and high
    24  school students using them since 2015, according to a study published in
    25  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
    26    d. The FDA has expressed concern that use of these  products,  whether
    27  or not they contain nicotine, will provide visual cues to youth and will
    28  renormalize  cigarette  smoking and use of tobacco products, undermining
    29  tobacco control  effort  and  contributing  to  smoking  initiation  and
    30  reduced cessation, particularly among youth.
    31    4.  Cigarette  butts are a plastic product that significantly contrib-
    32  utes to pollution in soil,  waterways,  and  beaches,  and  impacts  the
    33  health  of  fish  and  other wildlife, as well as the safety of the food
    34  supply for humans.
    35    a. Cigarette butts are the  most  collected  item  internationally  in
    36  beach  and  waterway cleanup programs. It is estimated that 5.6 trillion
    37  cigarette butts end up as  litter annually worldwide,  totaling  845,000
    38  tons  of waste. Plastic cigar tips, commonly sold and used with cigaril-
    39  los and small cigars, are also among the world's most littered objects.
    40    b. Cigarette butts have been described as  "the last socially accepted
    41  form of litter." A 2012 survey of cigarette  smokers  published  in  the
    42  International  Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found
    43  that 55.7 percent reported littering cigarette butts in the past month.
    44    c. Nearly all cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, a  king
    45  of  plastic.  They  are not biodegradable. Instead, they break down into
    46  small particles that end up in waterways, in  the  bodies  of  fish  and
    47  other animals, and eventually in our food supply.
    48    d.  Even  if  filters  could  be made of biodegradable materials, they
    49  would still be rendered hazardous due to toxins accumulated in the smok-
    50  ing process, including arsenic, cadmium, toluene, nicotine,  and  ethyl-
    51  phenol, as well as bio-accumulated toxins from the environment.
    52    e.  Single-use electronic cigarettes and cartridges contain components
    53  such as lithium-ion batteries, as well as  toxic  chemicals  and  liquid
    54  nicotine  that together qualify them as electronic, toxic, and hazardous
    55  waste. A single user could discard hundreds of  single-use  e-cigarettes

        S. 7259                             3

     1  every   year.   Such  waste  is  inappropriate  for  standard  municipal
     2  collection.
     3    f.  The  cost  to  individual  municipalities of cleaning up cigarette
     4  butts and single-use electronic cigarettes can  run  into  the  tens  of
     5  millions of dollars.
     6    5.  Littered  cigarette  filters  and  liquid nicotine from single-use
     7  electronic cigarettes and cartridges pose a health threat to young chil-
     8  dren.
     9    a. In  2013,  the  American  Association  of  Poison  Control  Centers
    10  reported  receiving over 8,500 reports of children under age 13 poisoned
    11  by cigarettes, cigarette butts, and other tobacco products.
    12    b. Children poisoned by cigarette butts or liquid nicotine can experi-
    13  ence vomiting, nausea, lethargy, eye irritation, and gagging.
    14    c. Calls to American poison control centers concerning liquid nicotine
    15  exposures increased from one in February 2010 to 2,015 in February 2014,
    16  most of which involved children under the age of five,  according  to  a
    17  study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
    18    6.  Efforts to prevent litter of cigarette filters or single-use elec-
    19  tronic cigarettes by educating consumers have failed.
    20    7. By banning the sale of cigarettes with single-use filters, New York
    21  State will mitigate a source of plastic pollution while having  a  posi-
    22  tive impact on public health.
    23    §  3.  The  public  health  law  is  amended  by  adding a new section
    24  1399-mm-1 to read as follows:
    25    § 1399-mm-1. Prohibition on cigarettes  utilizing  single-use  filters
    26  and single-use electronic cigarettes. 1. As used in this section:
    27    (a)  "cigarette"  means a cigarette as defined in section four hundred
    28  seventy of the tax law;
    29    (b) "filter" means a porous article, mass,  or  device  through  which
    30  tobacco  smoke or other related tobacco by-products pass for the purpose
    31  of removing or appearing to remove tar, nicotine, or other toxins;
    32    (c) "single-use" means designed or generally recognized by the  public
    33  as being designed for one-time use;
    34    (d)  "person" includes an individual, copartnership, limited liability
    35  company, society, association, corporation, joint stock company, and any
    36  combination of individuals and also an executor, administrator,  receiv-
    37  er, trustee or other fiduciary; and
    38    (e)  "tobacco  products  dealer" means any person operating a place of
    39  business wherein tobacco  products,  herbal  cigarettes,  or  electronic
    40  cigarettes  are sold or offered for sale, including any wholesale dealer
    41  or retailer dealer as defined in section four hundred seventy of the tax
    42  law, and any vapor products dealer as defined in section eleven  hundred
    43  eighty of the tax law.
    44    2. No tobacco products dealer shall sell, permit to be sold, offer for
    45  sale or display to another person in this state, whether in person or by
    46  means  of  any  public  or  private method of shipment or delivery to an
    47  address in this state, any of the following:
    48    (a) a cigarette utilizing a single-use filter made  of  any  material,
    49  including  cellulose acetate, any other fibrous plastic material, or any
    50  organic or biodegradable material;
    51    (b) an attachable and single-use device made of any material meant  to
    52  facilitate  manual  manipulation or filtration of a cigarette or tobacco
    53  product; or
    54    (c) a single-use electronic cigarette.
    55    For the purposes of  this  section,  electronic  cigarette  shall  not
    56  include any product approved by the United States food and drug adminis-

        S. 7259                             4

     1  tration  as  a  drug  or  medical  device, or manufactured and dispensed
     2  pursuant to title five-A of article thirty-three of this chapter.
     3    3.  Any  person  who  violates  any provision of this section shall be
     4  liable for a civil  penalty  of  five  hundred  dollars  for  the  first
     5  violation,  one thousand dollars for the second violation, and one thou-
     6  sand five hundred dollars for  any  subsequent  violation  in  the  same
     7  calendar  year.  For purposes of this section, the sale of one to twenty
     8  items specified in paragraph (a), (b) or (c) of subdivision two of  this
     9  section constitutes a single violation.
    10    § 4. If any provision of this act, or any application of any provision
    11  of  this  act, is held to be invalid, that shall not affect the validity
    12  or effectiveness of any provision of this act, or of any other  applica-
    13  tion  of  any  provision  of this act, which can be given effect without
    14  that provision or application; and  to  that  end,  the  provisions  and
    15  applications of this act are severable.
    16    §  5. This act shall take effect on the first of January, 2022. Effec-
    17  tive immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any  rule  or
    18  regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective
    19  date  are  authorized and directed to be made and completed on or before
    20  such effective date.
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