BILL NUMBER: AB 768 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 5, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 6, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Thurmond
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Bloom)
(Coauthor: Senator Leno)
FEBRUARY 25, 2015
An act to add Article 1.5 (commencing with Section 118916) to
Chapter 4 of Part 15 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code,
relating to tobacco.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 768, as amended, Thurmond. Tobacco Free Baseball Act.
Smokeless tobacco: baseball stadiums.
Existing law prohibits the smoking of tobacco in every
publicly owned building open to the general public for the primary
purpose of exhibiting a motion picture, stage drama, music recital,
or any other performance, with the exception of any indoor sporting
event, except in designated areas. generally prohibits
the smoking of tobacco in the workplace and in public buildings,
except in specified areas.
This bill would prohibit the use or possession of
smokeless tobacco products, as defined, including
smokeless tobacco, in a baseball stadium, which includes the physical
area in which a professional, collegiate, high school, or other
organized baseball game or practice is occurring. The bill would
require a baseball stadium to have posted at every entrance a
conspicuous sign clearly communicating that the use of tobacco
products, including smokeless tobacco, is prohibited.
on the playing field of a baseball stadium during a professional
baseball game or practice. The bill provides that,
would provide that if any provision or its
application is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other
provisions or applications that can be given effect without the
invalid provision or application.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes
no . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. This act shall be known, and may be
cited, as the Tobacco Free Baseball Act.
SEC. 2. SECTION 1. Article 1.5
(commencing with Section 118916) is added to Chapter 4 of Part 15 of
Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:
Article 1.5. Public Spaces Smokeless
Tobacco in Professional Baseball
118916. (a) (1) The Legislature finds and
declares that the regulation on use of
smokeless tobacco products in professional,
collegiate, high school, and other baseball stadiums
by professional baseball players is a matter of statewide
interest and concern. It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting
this section to prohibit any tobacco product, including
smokeless tobacco, at any time at an event site for professional,
collegiate, high school, or other organized baseball games in all
baseball the use of smokeless tobacco products by
professional baseball players in stadiums in this state.
(2) The Legislature further finds that there is a high level of
smokeless tobacco use by Major League Baseball players, as well as a
well-established role-model effect between professional baseball
players and youth. A ban on the use of smokeless tobacco in
professional baseball takes aim at the use of smokeless tobacco by
professional baseball players at stadiums throughout California with
the goal that impressionable youth never begin to use smokeless
tobacco products or associate smokeless tobacco with the sport of
baseball.
(3) To promote a healthy and active lifestyle and to set a better
example for youth, the Legislature urges Major League Baseball and
the Major League Baseball Players Association to adopt a nationwide
ban on the use of smokeless tobacco by players, managers, and coaches
in public stadiums. Since 1993, minor league baseball has prohibited
the use or possession of smokeless tobacco by players, coaches, and
umpires on ballpark premises and during club travel.
(b) A person shall not use or possess a smokeless
tobacco product at any time at on the
playing field of a baseball stadium.
(c) For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall
apply:
(1) "Baseball stadium" means the physical area in which a
professional, collegiate, high school, or other organized
professional baseball game or practice is
occurring, including all open, semiopen, and enclosed spaces and
structures. A baseball stadium includes, but is not limited to,
playing fields, dugouts, bullpens, training rooms, locker rooms, team
bench areas, spectator seating areas, pedestrian walkways,
bathrooms, dining areas, vendor areas, offices, and recreational
areas. occurring.
(2) "Playing field" means the area in which a baseball game is
played, including a dugout, bullpen, and team bench area.
(2) "Organized
(3) "Professional baseball" means
baseball games played in connection with an established
league or other association of persons. Major League
Baseball or minor league baseball.
(3)
(4) "Smokeless tobacco" means a product that contains
cut, ground, powdered, or leaf tobacco and is intended to be placed
in the oral or nasal cavity, including, but not limited to, snuff,
chewing tobacco, dipping tobacco, dissolvable tobacco products, and
sinus. snus.
(4) "Tobacco product" includes all of the following:
(A) A product made or derived from tobacco or nicotine that is
intended for human consumption, whether smoked, heated, chewed,
absorbed, dissolved, inhaled, snorted, sniffed, or ingested by any
other means, including, but not limited to, cigarettes, cigars,
little cigars, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco, and snuff.
(B) An electronic device that delivers nicotine or other
substances to the person inhaling from the device, including, but not
limited to, an electronic cigarette, cigar, pipe, or hookah.
(C) A component, part, or accessory of a tobacco product, whether
or not sold separately.
(D) "Tobacco product" does not include a product that has been
approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for sale
as a tobacco cessation product or for other therapeutic purposes
where the product is marketed and sold solely for that approved
purpose.
(d) Each baseball stadium shall have posted at every entrance a
conspicuous sign clearly communicating that the use of tobacco
products, including smokeless tobacco, is prohibited. These signs
shall also be posted in all dugouts, bullpens, locker rooms, and
bathrooms.
(e)
(d) This section shall be construed as supplementing
and imposing prohibitions and requirements in addition to those in
existing law.
(f)
(e) The provisions of this section are severable. If
any provision of this section or its application is held invalid,
that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications
that can be given effect without the invalid provision or
application.