Bill Text: CA AB48 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Cigarettes: single-use filters.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 7)
Status: (Failed) 2016-02-01 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB48 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB48-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 48 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY FEBRUARY 13, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Mark Stone
( Coauthors: Assembly Members
Bloom, Gonzalez, Levine,
Rendon, and Williams )
( Coauthor: Senator Allen
)
DECEMBER 1, 2014
An act to add Division 8.55 (commencing with Section 22964) to the
Business and Professions Code, relating to cigarettes.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 48, as amended, Mark Stone. Cigarettes: single-use filters.
Existing law, the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement Act,
requires all persons engaging in the retail sale of tobacco products
to check the identification of tobacco purchasers, to establish the
age of the purchaser, if the purchaser reasonably appears to be under
18 years of age. Under existing law, an enforcing agency, as
defined, may assess civil penalties against any person, firm, or
corporation that sells, gives, or in any way furnishes to another
person who is under 18 years of age, any tobacco, cigarette,
cigarette papers, any other instrument or paraphernalia that is
designed for the smoking or ingestion of tobacco, or products
prepared from tobacco. The existing civil penalties range from $400
to $600 for a first violation, up to $5,000 to $6,000 for a 5th
violation within a 5-year period.
Existing law prohibits the sale, distribution, or nonsale
distribution of tobacco products directly or indirectly to any person
under 18 years of age through the United States Postal Service or
through any other public or private postal or package delivery
service at locations, including, but not limited to, public mailboxes
and mailbox stores. Under existing law, a district attorney, city
attorney, or the Attorney General may assess civil penalties against
a violator of that provision of not less than $1,000 or more than
$2,000 for the first violation and up to $10,000 for a 5th violation
within a 5-year period.
Under existing law, every person, firm, or corporation that
knowingly or under circumstances in which it has knowledge, or should
otherwise have grounds for knowledge, sells, gives, or in any way
furnishes to another person who is under 18 years of age any
cigarette, among other specified items, is subject to either a
criminal action for a misdemeanor or to a civil action brought by a
city attorney, a county counsel, or a district attorney, punishable
by a fine of $200 for the first offense, $500 for the 2nd offense,
and $1,000 for the 3rd offense.
This bill would state findings and declarations of the Legislature
regarding the health and safety hazards to residents of the state
related to cigarettes utilizing single-use filters. The bill would
prohibit a person or entity from selling, giving, or in any way
furnishing to another person of any age in this state a cigarette
utilizing a single-use filter made of any material, including
cellulose acetate, or other fibrous plastic material, and any organic
or biodegradable material. The bill would prohibit that selling,
giving, or furnishing, whether conducted directly or indirectly
through an in-person transaction or by means of any public or private
method of shipment or delivery to an address in this state.
This bill would authorize a city attorney, county counsel, or
district attorney to assess a $500 civil fine against each person
determined to have violated those prohibitions in a proceeding
conducted pursuant to the procedures of the enforcing agency, as
specified.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Division 8.55 (commencing with Section 22964) is added
to the Business and Professions Code, immediately following Section
22963, to read:
DIVISION 8.55. Prohibition on Cigarettes Utilizing Single-Use
Filters
22964. (a) Studies published in the peer-reviewed journal Tobacco
Control estimate the percentage of smokers who litter to range from
75 percent to 92 percent, for smokers between 21
and 25 years of age. It is estimated that 845,500 tons of cigarette
butts become litter around the globe each year.
(b) Cigarette butts have consistently been the single
most-recovered item since collections began among volunteer groups,
including the Ocean Conservancy and its International Coastal Cleanup
event, which cleans litter in waterways, beaches, and parks in this
state.
(c) Although the citation rate for littering cigarette waste is
annually about five times that of general litter from vehicles, as
reported in the Department of Motor Vehicles' citation statistics,
cigarette butts remain at the top of the list for litter on our
highways.
(d) The Department of Transportation has estimated the costs to
clean up cigarette butts at forty-one million dollars ($41,000,000)
annually.
(e) The City and County of San Francisco has estimated costs for
city abatement of cigarette butts at over six million dollars
($6,000,000) annually.
(f) From 2006 to 2008, the American Association of Poison Control
Centers reported approximately 12,600 cases of children ingesting
cigarettes or cigarette butts. Children under six years of age are
especially prone to cigarette butt ingestion.
(g) The well-documented and common occurrence of cigarette butt
ingestion by domestic animals points to the larger impact that
improperly discarded cigarette butts have on our environment and
wildlife.
(h) As early as the mid-1960s, the Surgeon General of the United
States judged cigarette filters to be useless in reducing harm to the
average smoker.
(i) Banning the sale, gift, or other furnishing of cigarettes
utilizing single-use filters is necessary to keep toxic litter out of
our state's environment and promote the health and safety of our
state's residents.
(j) In its cigarette and tobacco products tax evasion report for
2012-13, the State Board of Equalization noted that 90.6 percent of
cigarette contraband and excise tax evasion was driven by retailer
evasion and 9.4 percent by individual consumer evasion. Strong
safeguards, including retail inspections, have proven effective in
preventing further black market evasion.
22965. (a) No person or entity shall sell, give, or in any way
furnish to another person, of any age, in this state, a cigarette
utilizing a single-use filter made of any material including, but not
limited to, cellulose acetate, or other fibrous plastic material, or
any organic or biodegradable material. The prohibition under this
subdivision applies to any direct or indirect transaction, whether
made in-person in this state or by means of any public or private
method of shipment or delivery to an address in this state.
(b) The sale, gift, or other furnishing of one to 20 cigarettes
constitutes a single violation of this section.
22966. (a) (1) A city attorney, county counsel, or district
attorney may assess a civil fine of five hundred dollars ($500) for
each violation of Section 22965. Only a city attorney, county
counsel, or district attorney may assess the civil fine against each
person determined to be in violation of Section 22965.
(2) Proceedings under this section shall be conducted pursuant to
the procedures of the enforcing agency that are consistent with
Section 131071 of the Health and Safety Code and in accordance with
Article 6 (commencing with Section 11425.10) of Chapter 4.5 of Part 1
of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
(b) Fine moneys assessed pursuant to this section shall be
deposited in the treasury of the city or county, respectively, of the
city attorney, county counsel, or district attorney who assessed the
fine.
22967. A city attorney, county counsel, or district attorney
acting as an enforcement agency, as defined in subdivision (b) of
Section 22950.5, is encouraged, but not required, to develop
guidelines for its agency to conduct tobacco control investigations
of violations of subdivision (a) of Section 22965 concurrent with
investigations of violations of Section 308 of the Penal Code or
Division 8.5 (commencing with Section 22950), conducted in accordance
with Section 22952, or concurrent with investigations of violations
of any tobacco control provisions created by local ordinance in its
jurisdiction.
