Senate Bill S428

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S428A

SPONSOR: HOYLMAN
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the public health law, in relation to
prohibiting the sale and distribution of flavored e-liquid for use in
e-cigarettes

 
PURPOSE:

To amend the Public Health Law, in relation to prohibiting the sale and
distribution of flavored "e-liquids" for use in electronic cigarettes
and electronic cigarettes containing such flavoring.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one of the bill amends the Public Health Law by adding a new
section 1399-mm-1, which bans the sale and distribution of any flavored
e-liquid or e-cigarette in New York State.

Section two of the bill establishes the effective date.

              

 
JUSTIFICATION:

While conventional cigarette use has declined, electronic cigarette use
is on the rise- especially amongst adolescents and young adults.
According to a 2016 report by the U.S. Surgeon General, young adult
users of e-cigarettes (ages 18 through 24) are much more likely to use
flavored e-cigarettes than users over the age of 25. The Surgeon General
also reported that the majority of youth who have tried e-cigarettes
first used a flavored product. In these surveys, youth noted flavoring
as one of their biggest draws to trying electronic cigarettes, in addi-
tion to curiosity and a perceived lower risk when compared to tradi-
tional tobacco products.

Electronic cigarette companies use colorful packaging and enticing
flavors to lure young people at their most vulnerable age for smoking.
According to a 2014 report from the Surgeon General, nine out of ten
smokers began before the age of 18, and studies show that the likelihood
of them starting to smoke decreases as they enter their twenties. Tobac-
co companies have long been using creative tactics to draw in adoles-
cents and young adults to smoking and are now using flavoring to entice
this demographic. This bill would eliminate the temptation for young
people in New York State to try flavored electronic cigarettes and in
turn reduce the number of people who become regular users of tobacco
products.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2017: 5.8610 (Hannon) - Died in Rules

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S428B

SPONSOR: HOYLMAN
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public health law, in relation to prohibiting the
sale and distribution of flavored e-liquid for use in e-cigarettes

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one of the bill amends the Public Health Law by adding a new
section 1399-mm-1, which defines the terms "flavored e-liquid" and
"characterizing flavor" for the purposes of the new section and bans the
sale and distribution of any flavored e-liquid or e-cigarette in New
York State, other than tobacco flavored e-liquid or e-cigarettes.
Violators of this prohibition would be subject to a civil fine of not
more than five hundred dollars.

Section two of the bill establishes the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:
              

The United States is in the midst of a rapidly worsening epidemic of
e-cigarette use by minors. According to the 2019 National Youth Tobacco
Survey, more than 5 million youth report current e-cigarette use (having
used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days), an increase of about 1.4 million
since 2018, and nearly 3 million since 2017. Nearly a million of those
youth report daily use of e-cigarettes.

Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine based on
National Institute of Health (NIH) data backs up those findings. That
research showed that 1 in 4 high school seniors had vaped in the past 30
days (up from 1 in 10 in 2017) and 40.5% of high school seniors reported
they had tried vaping at least once (up from 25% in 2017).  The same
research found that the percentage of eighth graders who had vaped in
the past 30 days has roughly tripled since 2017 (from 3.5% to 9%).

The New York Youth Tobacco Survey 2008-2018 tells us that here in New
York, 44.9% of high schoolers have tried vaping at least once and 27.4%
of high schoolers are current users.

These findings are particularly troubling because mounting evidence
demonstrates that e-cigarettes and other vaping products are harmful to
the health of both children and adults alike. The U.S. was rocked by a
wave of lung injuries and deaths linked to vaping beginning in the
summer of 2019. As of December 17, 2019, the CDC has confirmed 2,506
hospitalized U.S. cases of E-cigarette or Vaping Product Use-Associated
Lung Injury (EVALI) and 54 deaths. Though research led by the CDC and
New York's own Wadsworth Labs has found that an additive called vitamin
E acetate sometimes found in THC vaping products is "closely associated
with" these injuries, a CDC spokesperson also stressed that other chemi-
cals could cause injury, saying "a persistent small proportion of EVALI
cases do not report use of THC-containing vaping products."

Setting aside the EVALI cases, recent studies examining the health
impacts of e-cigarettes have linked their use to exposure to toxic chem-
icals such as chromium, nickel, and lead found in the devices' heating
systems and other chemicals in found in e-cigarette aerosols linked to
heart disease, respiratory disease, and cancer.
Studies have also linked e-cigarette use to bronchiolitis ("popcorn
lung") or scarring of the lungs; endothelial dysfunction (which often
precedes cardiovascular disease); wheezing and related respiratory symp-
toms; effects normally associated with the development of COPD; worsen-
ing of heart disease risk factors; and decreased blood flow to the
heart.

Given how little time our public health experts have had to comprehen-
sively study the effects of these devices over a sustained period of
time, these effects are likely the tip of the iceberg.

At a public hearing held by the Senate in November 2019 to examine this
issue, officials from the New York State and New York City Departments
of Health testified about the short and long-term health risks of
vaping, and urged measures to restrict flavored e-cigarettes as a way to
reduce the appeal of these products to minors.

Studies consistently show that flavored e-cigarettes and other tobacco
products are more appealing to children, and the use of flavored e-ci-
garettes makes both children and adults more likely to continue to vape,
to vape more often and more heavily, and to initiate onto traditional
cigarettes.

In fact, a 2018 survey of roughly 7,000 youth and young adult e-cigar-
ette and other tobacco users by researchers affiliated with the Univer-
sity of Texas found that over 80% of respondents reported using flavored
products, and three-fourths of those users said they would no longer use
the product if it was not flavored.

E-cigarette companies have directly targeted ads for these appealing
flavored products to children, both online and through physical adver-
tising. In fact, the FDA has found that at least one major manufacturer
of e-cigarettes had illegally marketed their products by implying that
they were safer than traditional cigarettes, even going so far as to
call their products "totally safe" during a presentation to students at
a school.

This predatory, deceptive marketing and these appealing flavored
products have successfully misled many young people into thinking that
e-cigarettes are safe. Many youth are alarmingly unaware that not only
do the vast majority of e-cigarettes contain nicotine, some e-cigarette
pods contain as much nicotine as an entire pack of cigarettes and can
deliver it in much higher doses.

New York State has made enormous progress in reducing conventional ciga-
rette use over the past few decades. However, the explosion in e-cigar-
ette use by young people has the potential to addict a whole new gener-
ation to nicotine and cause numerous adverse health impacts to our young
people as they develop and grow.

For years, the FDA has consistently failed to take decisive action on
this issue, despite abundant warning signs that e-cigarette use by
minors was spiraling out of control.

Thankfully, states have the authority to fill the gap in regulation.  As
of January 2020, at least seven states (including New York) have enacted
emergency rules to restrict or ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes,
and Massachusetts recently passed a law to prohibit the sale of all
flavored tobacco products. The New York City Council also passed a law
in November 2019 to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. New York
State should do the same to protect the health of children and adults
alike.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2019: 5.428-A (Hoylman) - Died on Third Reading
2018: 5.8610 (Hannon) - Died on Third Reading

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law.