Common sense proposal would amend tax and public health laws to make e-cig cartridges a taxable tobacco product
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz has announced that he is sponsoring new legislation in the Assembly, A.8594, which would classify e-cigarette cartridges, which are filled with nicotine and other unknown chemicals, as tobacco products under New York state law and tax them accordingly. The bill has been referred to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.
“It’s
about time we start acknowledging the reality of these nicotine filled
products and the unregulated nature of this potentially hazardous
industry,” said Assemblyman Dinowitz.
In
recent years New York lawmakers have begun tackling the litany of
health issues associated with electronic cigarettes, which have grown in
popularity as an alternative to regular cigarettes, by prohibiting
their sale to minors and banning them from public indoor use in New York
City. Legislation calling for a similar ban of indoor use statewide is
also being pursued.
Although
New York is taking a proactive approach to regulating e-cigarette
products, a national standard for their regulation has yet to be
determined. In December 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.
Circuit issued a decision stating e-cigarettes and other products “made
or derived from tobacco” should be regulated as tobacco products by the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Tobacco Control Act. In
spite of the court’s decision, the FDA has yet to rule on the regulation
of these products on a national level. If passed, New York will join
Minnesota in classifying cartridges that contain nicotine and other
harmful chemicals as tobacco products.
“E-cigarettes
aren’t the safe alternative the industry makes them out to be,”
Dinowitz said. “It’s a product that contains nicotine as well as other
unknown chemicals and therefore should fall into the same category as
other tobacco products, including being taxed as a tobacco product.
These devices are marketed as smoking cessation tools, when in actuality
they are anything but. New York has always been a leader among states
and this is no exception. We will not wait around for the federal
government to act.”
Tobacco
control organizations are also concerned about the noticeable
similarities between e-cigarettes and regular cigarettes, especially as
it pertains to their shared appearance. E-cigarettes are designed to
look just like regular cigarettes, creating the potential to lure young
teens in with the false promise that they can smoke without the normally
associated health risks. Acting as something of a nicotine gateway,
these e-cigarettes may lead to an increase in nicotine addiction among
younger users, which could in turn also result in an increase in regular
cigarette smoking.
