S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
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7259
I N S E N A T E
January 14, 2020
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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:
Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "tobacco
product waste reduction act".
§ 2. Legislative findings. The legislature finds and declares the
following:
1. The use of tobacco products causes death and disease and continues
to be an urgent public health challenge. The United States Department of
Health and Human Services and the New York State Department of Health
have reported the following:
a. Tobacco-related illness is the leading cause of preventable death
in the United States, accounting for about 480,000 deaths each year,
including 28,200 New York adults.
b. Annually in New York State, 10,600 youth become new daily smokers
and an estimated 280,000 New York youth now alive will die early from
smoking.
c. Tobacco use can cause chronic lung disease, diabetes, eye disease,
rheumatoid arthritis, coronary heart disease, stroke, ectopic pregnancy,
and infertility, in addition to leukemia and cancer of the lungs,
larynx, colon, liver, esophagus, pancreas, kidney, cervix, bladder,
stomach, and mouth.
d. Tobacco-related health care annually costs New Yorkers $10.4
billion, including $3.3 billion in Medicaid expenses.
2. Cigarette filters, also known as butts, do not improve the safety
or healthfulness of cigarettes or other tobacco products, and research
indicates that they likely increase the negative public health effects
of tobacco products.
a. According to a 2014 Surgeon General's report, "evidence suggests
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
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cancer by enabling smokers to inhale more vigorously, thereby drawing
carcinogens contained in cigarette smoke more deeply into lung tissue."
b. The perception that filtered cigarettes are safer encourages smok-
ing and leads to increased public harm. In 2010, the United States
joined Canada and the EU in prohibiting the use of tobacco packaging or
advertising using terms like "light," "mild," or "low," which convey the
false impression that filters reduce risk.
c. A 2017 study from the National Cancer Institute recommended that
"the FDA should consider regulating {filter use}, up to and including a
ban."
3. Electronic cigarettes and similar products pose health hazards and
may contribute to youth smoking and reduced smoking cessation, regard-
less of nicotine content.
a. These products contain or produce chemicals other than nicotine
known to be toxic, carcinogenic and causative of respiratory and heart
distress.
b. Emissions from these products may contain particulate matter, harm-
ful to those exposed, including bystanders involuntarily exposed. The
United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has presented evidence
of nicotine and other toxicants in exhaled electronic cigarette aerosol
and stated exposure should be limited.
c. Nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes are the most common nico-
tine products used by students, with three million middle and high
school students using them since 2015, according to a study published in
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
d. The FDA has expressed concern that use of these products, whether
or not they contain nicotine, will provide visual cues to youth and will
renormalize cigarette smoking and use of tobacco products, undermining
tobacco control effort and contributing to smoking initiation and
reduced cessation, particularly among youth.
4. Cigarette butts are a plastic product that significantly contrib-
utes to pollution in soil, waterways, and beaches, and impacts the
health of fish and other wildlife, as well as the safety of the food
supply for humans.
a. Cigarette butts are the most collected item internationally in
beach and waterway cleanup programs. It is estimated that 5.6 trillion
cigarette butts end up as litter annually worldwide, totaling 845,000
tons of waste. Plastic cigar tips, commonly sold and used with cigaril-
los and small cigars, are also among the world's most littered objects.
b. Cigarette butts have been described as "the last socially accepted
form of litter." A 2012 survey of cigarette smokers published in the
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found
that 55.7 percent reported littering cigarette butts in the past month.
c. Nearly all cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, a king
of plastic. They are not biodegradable. Instead, they break down into
small particles that end up in waterways, in the bodies of fish and
other animals, and eventually in our food supply.
d. Even if filters could be made of biodegradable materials, they
would still be rendered hazardous due to toxins accumulated in the smok-
ing process, including arsenic, cadmium, toluene, nicotine, and ethyl-
phenol, as well as bio-accumulated toxins from the environment.
e. Single-use electronic cigarettes and cartridges contain components
such as lithium-ion batteries, as well as toxic chemicals and liquid
nicotine that together qualify them as electronic, toxic, and hazardous
waste. A single user could discard hundreds of single-use e-cigarettes
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every year. Such waste is inappropriate for standard municipal
collection.
f. The cost to individual municipalities of cleaning up cigarette
butts and single-use electronic cigarettes can run into the tens of
millions of dollars.
5. Littered cigarette filters and liquid nicotine from single-use
electronic cigarettes and cartridges pose a health threat to young chil-
dren.
a. In 2013, the American Association of Poison Control Centers
reported receiving over 8,500 reports of children under age 13 poisoned
by cigarettes, cigarette butts, and other tobacco products.
b. Children poisoned by cigarette butts or liquid nicotine can experi-
ence vomiting, nausea, lethargy, eye irritation, and gagging.
c. Calls to American poison control centers concerning liquid nicotine
exposures increased from one in February 2010 to 2,015 in February 2014,
most of which involved children under the age of five, according to a
study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
6. Efforts to prevent litter of cigarette filters or single-use elec-
tronic cigarettes by educating consumers have failed.
7. By banning the sale of cigarettes with single-use filters, New York
State will mitigate a source of plastic pollution while having a posi-
tive impact on public health.
§ 3. The public health law is amended by adding a new section
1399-mm-1 to read as follows:
§ 1399-MM-1. PROHIBITION ON CIGARETTES UTILIZING SINGLE-USE FILTERS
AND SINGLE-USE ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES. 1. AS USED IN THIS SECTION:
(A) "CIGARETTE" MEANS A CIGARETTE AS DEFINED IN SECTION FOUR HUNDRED
SEVENTY OF THE TAX LAW;
(B) "FILTER" MEANS A POROUS ARTICLE, MASS, OR DEVICE THROUGH WHICH
TOBACCO SMOKE OR OTHER RELATED TOBACCO BY-PRODUCTS PASS FOR THE PURPOSE
OF REMOVING OR APPEARING TO REMOVE TAR, NICOTINE, OR OTHER TOXINS;
(C) "SINGLE-USE" MEANS DESIGNED OR GENERALLY RECOGNIZED BY THE PUBLIC
AS BEING DESIGNED FOR ONE-TIME USE;
(D) "PERSON" INCLUDES AN INDIVIDUAL, COPARTNERSHIP, LIMITED LIABILITY
COMPANY, SOCIETY, ASSOCIATION, CORPORATION, JOINT STOCK COMPANY, AND ANY
COMBINATION OF INDIVIDUALS AND ALSO AN EXECUTOR, ADMINISTRATOR, RECEIV-
ER, TRUSTEE OR OTHER FIDUCIARY; AND
(E) "TOBACCO PRODUCTS DEALER" MEANS ANY PERSON OPERATING A PLACE OF
BUSINESS WHEREIN TOBACCO PRODUCTS, HERBAL CIGARETTES, OR ELECTRONIC
CIGARETTES ARE SOLD OR OFFERED FOR SALE, INCLUDING ANY WHOLESALE DEALER
OR RETAILER DEALER AS DEFINED IN SECTION FOUR HUNDRED SEVENTY OF THE TAX
LAW, AND ANY VAPOR PRODUCTS DEALER AS DEFINED IN SECTION ELEVEN HUNDRED
EIGHTY OF THE TAX LAW.
2. NO TOBACCO PRODUCTS DEALER SHALL SELL, PERMIT TO BE SOLD, OFFER FOR
SALE OR DISPLAY TO ANOTHER PERSON IN THIS STATE, WHETHER IN PERSON OR BY
MEANS OF ANY PUBLIC OR PRIVATE METHOD OF SHIPMENT OR DELIVERY TO AN
ADDRESS IN THIS STATE, ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:
(A) A CIGARETTE UTILIZING A SINGLE-USE FILTER MADE OF ANY MATERIAL,
INCLUDING CELLULOSE ACETATE, ANY OTHER FIBROUS PLASTIC MATERIAL, OR ANY
ORGANIC OR BIODEGRADABLE MATERIAL;
(B) AN ATTACHABLE AND SINGLE-USE DEVICE MADE OF ANY MATERIAL MEANT TO
FACILITATE MANUAL MANIPULATION OR FILTRATION OF A CIGARETTE OR TOBACCO
PRODUCT; OR
(C) A SINGLE-USE ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE.
FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS SECTION, ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE SHALL NOT
INCLUDE ANY PRODUCT APPROVED BY THE UNITED STATES FOOD AND DRUG ADMINIS-
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TRATION AS A DRUG OR MEDICAL DEVICE, OR MANUFACTURED AND DISPENSED
PURSUANT TO TITLE FIVE-A OF ARTICLE THIRTY-THREE OF THIS CHAPTER.
3. ANY PERSON WHO VIOLATES ANY PROVISION OF THIS SECTION SHALL BE
LIABLE FOR A CIVIL PENALTY OF FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR THE FIRST
VIOLATION, ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR THE SECOND VIOLATION, AND ONE THOU-
SAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR ANY SUBSEQUENT VIOLATION IN THE SAME
CALENDAR YEAR. FOR PURPOSES OF THIS SECTION, THE SALE OF ONE TO TWENTY
ITEMS SPECIFIED IN PARAGRAPH (A), (B) OR (C) OF SUBDIVISION TWO OF THIS
SECTION CONSTITUTES A SINGLE VIOLATION.
§ 4. If any provision of this act, or any application of any provision
of this act, is held to be invalid, that shall not affect the validity
or effectiveness of any provision of this act, or of any other applica-
tion of any provision of this act, which can be given effect without
that provision or application; and to that end, the provisions and
applications of this act are severable.
§ 5. This act shall take effect on the first of January, 2022. Effec-
tive immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or
regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective
date are authorized and directed to be made and completed on or before
such effective date.
