BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
Senator Ed Hernandez, O.D., Chair
BILL NO: SB 977
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|AUTHOR: |Pan |
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|VERSION: |April 4, 2016 |
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|HEARING DATE: |April 13, 2016 | | |
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|CONSULTANT: |Reyes Diaz |
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SUBJECT : Tobacco: youth sports events
SUMMARY : Prohibits a person from smoking a tobacco product, as defined,
within 250 feet of a youth sports event, as defined. Broadens
the definition of "smoke or smoking" in existing law.
Existing law:
1)Prohibits the smoking of a cigarette, cigar, or other
tobacco-related product, and the disposal of cigarette butts,
cigar butts, or any other tobacco-related waste, within 25
feet of any playground or tot lot sandbox, as defined. Defines
"smoke or smoking" to mean the carrying of a lighted pipe,
cigar, or cigarette of any kind, or the lighting of a pipe,
cigar, or cigarette of any kind, including, but not limited
to, tobacco, or any other weed or plant.
2)Prohibits the intimidation, threat of any reprisal, or effect
of any reprisal, for the purpose of retaliating against
another person who seeks to attain compliance with existing
law.
3)Provides that any person who violates the law is guilty of an
infraction punishable by a fine of two hundred fifty dollars
($250) for each violation. Prohibits existing law from being
applied to private property.
This bill:
1)Prohibits a person from smoking a tobacco product within 250
feet of a youth sports event. Defines "youth sports event" as
any practice, game, or related activity organized by a
nonprofit youth sports organization at which athletes up to 18
years of age are present. Prohibits the provisions of this
bill from being applied to private property.
SB 977 (Pan) Page 2 of ?
2)Deletes the existing definition of "smoke or smoking" and
recasts to define "smoke or smoking" as inhaling, exhaling,
burning, or carrying any lighted or heated cigar, cigarette,
or pipe, or any other lighted or heated tobacco or plant
product intended for inhalation, whether natural or synthetic,
in any manner or in any form. Provides that "smoking" includes
the use of an electronic smoking device that creates an
aerosol or vapor, in any manner or in any form, or the use of
any oral smoking device for the purpose of circumventing the
prohibition of smoking.
3)Provides that "tobacco product" means any of the following:
a) A product containing, 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, or snuff;
b) An electronic device that delivers nicotine or
other vaporized liquids to the person inhaling from
the device, including, but not limited to, an
electronic cigarette, cigar, pipe, or hookah; and,
c) Any component, part, or accessory of a tobacco
product, whether or not sold separately.
4)Prohibits the preemption of the authority of any county, city,
or city and county to regulate the use of tobacco products
around a youth sports event. Allows a county, city, or city
and county to enforce any ordinance adopted before January 1,
2017, or to adopt and enforce a new regulation that is more
restrictive than the provisions in this bill, on and after
January 1, 2017.
FISCAL
EFFECT : This bill has not been analyzed by a fiscal committee.
COMMENTS :
1)Author's statement. According to the author, youth sports
events should promote healthy habits for children, but current
law doesn't ensure a healthy, tobacco-free environment for our
young athletes. SB 977 would protect our state's youth and
promote public health by prohibiting the use of tobacco
products within 250 feet of a sporting event. Youth sports
SB 977 (Pan) Page 3 of ?
should encourage young people to develop healthy habits that
will help them for the rest of their lives-not expose them to
the many health risks associated with secondhand smoke or
encourage them to take up tobacco products themselves.
Secondhand smoke increases the risk of asthma, lung infection
and ear disease, among other serious health conditions-and
children are more sensitive to these negative health effects.
Ninety percent of adult smokers begin while in their teens, or
earlier; and two-thirds become regular, daily smokers before
they reach the age of 19. Studies have shown that starting to
smoke at an early age increases the number of cigarettes
smoked per day in adult life, compounding the risk of
tobacco-related diseases. We have no reason to promote such
dangerous, long-lasting habits at our youth sports events.
2)Smoking prevalence. According to the 2012 Surgeon General's
Report, nearly 90% of smokers in the U.S. started smoking by
the age of 18, and 99% started by age 26. In California, 64%
of smokers start by the age of 18, and 96% start by age 26.
According to the California Department of Public Health (DPH),
in 2010, 36.8% of high school students had smoked a whole
cigarette by age 13 or 14, and in 2012, illegal tobacco sales
to minors rose to 8.7% from 5.6% in 2011. According to DPH, in
2010, 11.9% of the state's adults smoked, down from 13.1% in
2009, making California one of only two states to reach the
federal Healthy People 2020 target of reducing the adult
smoking prevalence rate to 12%. However, research highlights
that the burdens of smoking do not fall evenly across the
state. According to the American Lung Association (ALA),
African-American men and women have the highest smoking usage
rate at 21.3% and 17.1% respectively, followed by white men at
17.2% and Latino men at 16%. The ALA reports that Korean men
have an unusually high tobacco usage rate at 27.9%, as do
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender women who smoke at
almost triple the rate of women in general.
3)Tobacco-related diseases. Every year, an estimated 443,000
people in the U.S. die from tobacco and smoking-related
illnesses or exposure to secondhand smoke, according to the
federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The
CDC also reports that another 8.6 million people suffer from
serious smoking-related illnesses. According to DPH, smoking
causes ischemic heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic
lower respiratory diseases, which are the leading causes of
death and disability among adults in California.
SB 977 (Pan) Page 4 of ?
Smoking-attributed diseases are an economic burden due not
only to health care expenses but also productivity losses
related to disability or early death. DPH asserts, since the
passage of Proposition 99, adult smoking rates declined by
more than 40% from 22.7% to 13.3% in 2008. As smoking rates
declined, mortality and morbidity rates for diseases related
to smoking also declined. This parallel trend, according to
DPH, supports causal association between these conditions and
smoking.
4)Alternative tobacco products. According to DPH, prevalence of
smokeless and other tobacco products have increased among high
school students, which often do not have the same regulations
placed upon them as cigarettes. In recent years, sales of
smokeless tobacco and nicotine products, like snus, have risen
dramatically. Hookah, popular with teens and young adults, has
been shown to contain the same cancer-causing chemicals as
secondhand smoke. Smokeless tobacco has been linked to oral
cancer, pancreatic cancer, and gum disease. DPH recently
released a report on electronic cigarettes, which stated that
teen use of electronic cigarettes has surpassed the use of
traditional cigarettes and marketing of these products has
increased 1200% in the last three years. Electronic cigarettes
deliver nicotine to the user, which, research from the
Institute of Medicine shows, can be harmful to brain
development in adolescents. The DPH report asserts that the
aerosol emitted from electronic cigarettes is toxic and
contains at least 10 chemicals known to cause cancer, birth
defects, and other poor health outcomes.
5)Related legislation. SBX2 5 (Leno) recasts and broadens the
definition of "tobacco product" in current law to include
electronic cigarettes as specified; extends current
restrictions and prohibitions against the use of tobacco
products to electronic cigarettes; extends current licensing
requirements for manufacturers, importers, distributors,
wholesalers, and retailers of tobacco products to electronic
cigarettes; requires electronic cigarette cartridges to be
child-resistant; and exempts active duty military personnel,
as specified, from the requirement of being 21 years of age or
older to purchase tobacco products. SBX2 5 is ordered to
engrossing and enrolling.
SBX2 7 (Hernandez) increases the minimum legal age to purchase
or consume tobacco from 18 to 21. The bill also removes
SB 977 (Pan) Page 5 of ?
penalty provisions for those under 21 in possession of tobacco
and exempts military personnel from the age increase. SB X2 7
is ordered to engrossing and enrolling
ABX2 7 (Stone) removes many (but not all) exemptions in
existing law that allow tobacco smoking in certain indoor
workplaces and expands the prohibition on smoking in a place
of employment to include owner-operated businesses. ABX2 7 is
ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
AB 768 (Thurmond, Chapter 779, Statutes of 2015), prohibits,
commencing December 1, 2016, the use or possession of
smokeless tobacco products, as defined, on the playing field
of a baseball stadium during a professional baseball game or
practice.
6)Prior legislation. SB 648 (Corbett, of 2013), would have
extended the restrictions and prohibitions against the smoking
of tobacco products to include restrictions or prohibitions
against e-cigarette in various places, including, but not
limited to, places of employment, school campuses, public
buildings, day care facilities, retail food facilities, and
health facilities. SB 648 failed passage in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
7)Support. Supporters argue that according to the U.S. Surgeon
General there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand
smoke, and in 2006, the California Air Resources Board
classified secondhand smoke as a toxic air contaminant, akin
to asbestos, cyanide, and arsenic-all of which can lead to
serious illness and death. Supporters state that children,
pregnant women, the elderly, and those with chronic illnesses
are especially vulnerable to harmful effects of secondhand
smoke, which can cause asthma in children who have previously
not shown symptoms. Supporters state that this bill will
protect participating youth and their families from secondhand
smoke, as well as prevent the encouragement of youth to take
up smoking, which is the number one cause of preventable death
in the U.S.
8)Policy comment. This bill defines "youth sports event" as any
practice, game, or related activity organized by a nonprofit
youth sports organization. However, the bill does not address
instances in which a school's sports team, a for-profit youth
sports organization, or any other entity organizes a
SB 977 (Pan) Page 6 of ?
sports-related activity in a public outdoor space at which
youth athletes, or any youth, are present and participating in
the sports event. The author may wish to clarify if the intent
of the bill is to protect all youth at youth sports events
from the effects of tobacco-related products, regardless of
what type of entity organizes the event.
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION :
Support: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School 8th Grade
Class (sponsor)
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
American Lung Association in California
American Heart Association/American Stroke Association
Association of California Healthcare Districts
California Association of Recreation and Park
Districts
California Optometric Association
California State PTA
California Catholic Conference
County Health Executives Association of California
Oppose: None received
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