BILL NUMBER: S2223
SPONSOR: KRUEGER
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to enacting the
tobacco product waste reduction act
 
PURPOSE:
The purpose of the bill is to ban the sale of single-use filters for
cigarettes, as well as single-use electronic cigarettes.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Names the act the "Tobacco Product Waste Reduction Act."
Section 2: Legislative findings.
Section 3: Amends public health law to add new section 1399-mm4. Estab-
lishes definitions. Prohibits sale of cigarettes utilizing a single-use
filter, attachable single use filters, and single-use electronic ciga-
rettes. Provides for civil penalties of five hundred dollars for first
violation, one thousand dollars for second violation, and one thousand
five hundred dollars for any subsequent violation in the same calendar
year.
Section 4: Effective date.
Section 5: Severability clause.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Cigarette filters, also known as butts, do not improve the safety or
healthfulness of cigarettes. In fact, research indicates that filters
likely increase the negative public health effects of cigarettes. Ciga-
rette butts are also a plastic product that significantly contributes to
pollution in waterways and beaches, and impacts the health of fish and
other wildlife as well as the safety of the food supply for humans.
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. 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. 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, b dder, stomach, and mouth. Tobacco-related health care annually
costs New Y rkers $10.4 billion, including $3.3 billion in Medicaid
expenses.
It is now well established, though not widely known to the public, that
cigarette filters do not improve the safety or health of tobacco
products, and are primarily a marketing tool to make cigarettes appear
safer to consumers. Several studies, as well as reports from the Surgeon
General, have found that filters may in fact make cigarettes more
dangerous. According to a 2014 Surgeon General's report, "evidence
suggests that ventilated filters may have contributed to higher risks of
lung cancer by enabling smokers to inhale more vigorously, thereby draw-
ing carcinogens contained in cigarette smoke more deeply into lung
tissue." A 2017 study from the National Cancer Institute concurred,
recommending that "the FDA should consider regulating (filter use), up
to and including a ban."
The perception that filtered cigarettes are safer also encourages smok-
ing and leads to increased public harm. The 2017 NCI study found that
"lower tar yield (i.e. filtered) cigarettes became the preferred choice
of many smokers who perceived them to be a lower health risk because of
health messaging. This perception was reinforced by the sensation of
reduced harshness when smoking." In 2010, the United States joined Cana-
da 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.
Electronic cigarettes and similar products also pose health hazards and
may contribute to youth smoking and reduced smoking cessation, regard-
less of nicotine content. These products contain or produce chemicals
other than nicotine known to be toxic, carcinogenic and causative of
respiratory and heart distress. Emissions from these products may
contain particulate matter, harmful to those exposed, including bystan-
ders involuntary exposed. The FDA has presented evidence of nicotine and
other toxicants in exhaled electronic cigarette aerosol and stated expo-
sure should be limited.
Nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes are the most common nicotine
products used by students, with three million middle and high school
students using them in 2015, according to a study published in Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report. The FDA has expressed concern that use of
these products, whether or not they contain nicotine, will provide visu-
al cues to youth and will renormalize cigarette smoking and use of
tobacco products, undermining tobacco control efforts and contributing
to smoking initiation and reduced cessation, particularly among youth.
In addition to their negative public health impacts, cigarette butts are
the most collected item internationally in beach and waterway cleanup
programs. It is estimated that 845,000 tons of cigarette butts end up as
litter annually worldwide. Cigarette butts have been described as "the
last socially acceptable form of litter."
Nearly all cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, a kind of
plastic. They are not biodegradable, but they do break down into small
particles that end up in waterways, in the bodies of fish and other
animals, and eventually back in our food supply. Along the way, filters
trap toxins from smoking, including arsenic, cadmium, toluene, nicotine,
and ethylphenol, as well as bio-accumulating toxins from the environ-
ment. Even if filters could be made of biodegradable materials, the
toxins accumulated in the smoking process would still render those ciga-
rette butts hazardous waste.
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 every
year. Such waste is inappropriate for standard municipal collection,
and the cost to individual municipalities of cleaning up cigarette butts
and single-use electronic cigarettes can run into the tens of millions
of dollars.
Littered cigarette filters and liquid nicotine from single-use electron-
ic cigarettes and cartridges also pose a health threat to young chil-
dren. 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. Children
poisoned by cigarette butts or liquid nicotine can experience vomiting,
nausea, lethargy, eye irritation, and gagging. Calls to American poison
control centers concerning liquid nicotine exposures increased from one
in February 2010 to 215 in February 2014, most of which involved chil-
dren under the age of five, according to a study published in Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report.
Efforts to prevent litter by educating consumers have failed and, as is
the case with many environmental challenges, it is appropriate to
address the problem at the point of sale. Cigarette companies themselves
have determined that alternative materials to cellulose acetate are not
commercially viable.
This bill will ban within two years the sale in New York State of ciga-
rettes with filters, as well as attachable single-use filters, and
single use e-cigarettes.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-24: S.3063 -referred to health
2021-22: S.1276/A.4308 Griffin -referred to Health
2020: S.7259/A.9573 Jaffee - referred to Health
 
FISCAL IMPACT ON THE STATE:
No cost to the State
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect January 1, 2026.