Assembly Bill A8994

                                BILL NUMBER:A8994

TITLE  OF  BILL:   An act to amend the public health law, in relation to
prohibiting the sale of flavored cigarettes

PURPOSE: To prohibit the sale of certain flavored cigarettes.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS: Section one  provides  legislative  findings  and
intent.

Section two amends article 13-F of the public health law by adding a new
section  1399-  aaa  that  provides  that  the  sale of cigarettes which
contain a natural or artificial component or an additive that causes the
cigarette to have a characterizing flavor is prohibited. The term  char-
acterizing  flavor  is  defined  to  include, but not be limited to, any
fruit, chocolate, honey, candy, mint, cocoa, desert, alcoholic beverage,
herb or spice. Flavors of tobacco, menthol, and clove are not  prohibit-
ed.  Section two also provides that civil penalties shall be imposed for
violations of such law.

Section three provides the effective date.

JUSTIFICATION: The  recent  proliferation  of  cigarettes  that  contain
flavors  imitating foods, candies, deserts, beverages, and spices is not
only a disturbing trend but an obvious attempt to market  cigarettes  to
children.  Nicotine  is  an  addictive  substance  which  leads to heart
              

disease, lung disease, and cancer. The cost of treating tobacco  related
diseases  impacts  individuals, their families, and the state. According
to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Cigarette smoking kills more than
400,000 Americans and costs the nation more than $96 billion  in  health
care  every  year.  Yet, tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of
death in the United States.

While adults are free to decide to smoke if they wish,  the  law  recog-
nizes  that  children  cannot  make  informed  decisions and, therefore,
prohibits the sale of cigarettes to them. Unfortunately, flavored  ciga-
rettes  are  attractive to many children who find ways to purchase them.
Children often become addicted to cigarettes before they can  appreciate
their harm.

In  October  2006,  the  leading manufacturer of tobacco products in the
U.S., the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR), entered into a settlement
with state attorneys general to halt the marketing of fruit, candy,  and
alcohol  flavored  cigarettes.  The  attorneys general asserted that the
on-going marketing of flavored cigarettes violated the 1998  prohibition
on targeting youth.

RJR, however, continues to circumvent the settlement agreement by intro-
ducing  new  flavors  of  cigarettes. In magazines known to have a young
readership, the company has placed advertising that uses phrases such as
"accented with toasted honey" and "sweet apple-like  flavor"  to  market
the  new flavored cigarettes. Since the 1998 settlement, overall tobacco

marketing has nearly doubled. In 2005, the tobacco industry spent nearly
$36 million a day to market their deadly products.

Even  if flavored cigarettes are not intended to appeal to children, the
evidence suggests that such appeal exists. In  2005,  the  Roswell  Park
Cancer  Institute  released  a  national  survey  revealing  that twenty
percent of smokers  aged  seventeen  to  nineteen  said  they  had  used
flavored  cigarettes  in  the  past  thirty  days,  compared to just six
percent of smokers over the age of twenty-five. A study by  the  Harvard
School  of  Public  Health stated "Flavored cigarettes can promote youth
initiation and help young occasional smokers to become daily smokers  by
masking  the natural harshness and taste of tobacco smoke and increasing
the acceptability of a toxic product."

The argument that flavored cigarettes are priced too high to  appeal  to
children  is unconvincing. Once addicted to nicotine and used to tobacco
smoke, underage smokers buy less expensive cigarettes.

Congress has yet to pass legislation granting the  U.S.  Food  and  Drug
Administration  authority  over the manufacturing, marketing and sale of
tobacco products. It is clear that unless strong legislation is  passed,
companies  such  as  RJR  will not stop targeting children with flavored
cigarettes designed to appeal  to  them.  By  prohibiting  the  sale  of
flavored  cigarettes  in  New  York, children will be far less likely to
purchase cigarettes and will not develop a life-threatening addiction to
nicotine.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: A.7368-A 2008 and 2007, passed  assembly.  Same  as
S.4517-A (Fuschillo). A.3983-A 2006 and 2005 (Grannis), passed assembly.

FISCAL  IMPLICATIONS:  None.  Long  term  savings to the state and local
governments due to decrease in tobacco-related healthcare costs.

EFFECTIVE DATE: One hundred eighty days after it  shall  have  become  a
law.