BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 977
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Date of Hearing: June 21, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS, TOURISM, AND
INTERNET MEDIA
Kansen Chu, Chair
SB
977 (Pan) - As Amended June 15, 2016
SENATE VOTE: 33-5
SUBJECT: Tobacco: youth sports events.
SUMMARY: This bill would prohibit a person from smoking a
tobacco product, as defined, within 250 feet of a youth sports
event, as defined, and broaden the definition of "smoke or
smoking" in existing law. Specifically, this bill:
1)Declares that a person shall not smoke a cigarette, cigar, or
other tobacco-related product or dispose of cigarette butts,
cigar butts, or any other tobacco-related waste within 25 feet
of a playground or a tot lot sandbox area.
2)Prohibits any person located in the same park or facility
where a youth sports event is taking place from using a
tobacco product within 250 feet of the youth sports event.
3)Contains the following definitions:
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a) "Youth sports event" means any practice, game, or
related activity organized by any entity at which athletes
up to 18 years of age are present.
b) "Smoke or smoking" is redefined to mean 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. "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.
c) "Tobacco product" means any of the following:
i) 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.
ii) 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.
iii) Any component, part, or accessory of a tobacco
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product, whether or not sold separately.
4)Excludes a nicotine replacement product approved by the United
States Food and Drug Administration from the definition of
prohibited tobacco product.
5)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 this bill, on and after January 1, 2017.
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.
2)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.
3)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.
4)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.
FISCAL EFFECT: This bill was passed out of the Senate
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Appropriations Committee pursuant to Rule 28.8.
COMMENTS:
1)Author and supporters statement of need for legislation: to
provide healthy spaces for children. 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 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."
"SB 977 recognizes that coaches, parents, and peers can play a
critical role in influencing California's youth, especially
when they can be observed by youth participating in sporting
events. The overt use of tobacco products by these influential
figures on and around the field promotes the use of these
products to players and spectators," claims the California
Dental Association. According to the American Lung
Association, "children, pregnant women, the elderly, and those
with chronic illnesses are especially vulnerable to harmful
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effects of secondhand smoke, which can cause asthma in
children who have previously not shown symptoms." Other
supporters such as PTA and March of Dimes 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." The children of the 8th grade
class at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School, who brought
the bill idea to Senator Pan, state that, "Children do what
they see. Limiting exposure to all forms of smoking, vaping
and e cigarettes will lessen the chance of their starting?A
healthy youth ensures the future."
2)Background: Tobacco use and its effects on public health.
(The following is taken from information provided by the
author and supporters as summarized in the Senate Health
Committee analysis).
a) 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
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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.
b) 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. 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.
c) 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
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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.
3)Prior and related Legislation
a) SBX2 5 (Leno), Chapter 7, Statutes of 2016, Second
Extraordinary Session, recast and broadened 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.
b) SBX2 7 (Hernández), Chapter 8, Statutes of 2016, Second
Extraordinary Session, increased the minimum legal age to
purchase or consume tobacco from 18 to 21. The bill also
removed penalty provisions for those under 21 in possession
of tobacco and exempts military personnel from the age
increase.
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c) ABX2 7 (Stone), Chapter 4, Statutes of 2016, Second
Extraordinary Session, removed 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.
d) 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.
e) SB 648 (Corbett), Legis. 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.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School 8th Grade Class (source)
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American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
American Lung Association in California
American Heart Association/American Stroke Association
Association of California Healthcare Districts
California American College of Emergency Physicians
California Association of Recreation and Park Districts
California Dental Association
California Park & Recreation Society
California Pharmacists Association
California Optometric Association
California State PTA
California Catholic Conference
Common Sense Kids Action
County Health Executives Association of California
First 5 Association of California
Junior Leagues of California
March of Dimes of California
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Molina Healthcare of California
Opposition
There is no opposition on file.
Analysis Prepared by:Dana Mitchell / A.,E.,S.,T., & I.M. / (916)
319-3450