[Adopted 11-15-2016 by L.L. No. 10-2016]
This Town Board hereby finds and determines that the sale of
tobacco and related products to individuals under 21 years of age
should be prohibited in the Town of North Hempstead in order to:
A. Further the goals of New York State's tobacco use prevention
and control program, as identified in New York State Public Health
Law § 1399-ii;
B. Respond to the fact that tobacco is the leading cause of preventable
death and disease in New York State;
C. Respond to findings made by the Institute of Medicine, which prepared
a report at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration entitled
"Public Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age of Legal Access
to Tobacco Products," concluding and suggesting that:
(1) Adolescent brains are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of nicotine;
(2) A younger age of initiation is strongly associated with greater nicotine
dependence and is also associated with greater intensity and persistence
of smoking beyond adolescence and into adulthood;
(3) Almost one in five high school seniors is a current cigarette smoker;
(4) Underage users rely primarily on social sources, such as friends
and family, to acquire tobacco, and most of these sources are likely
to be between 18 and 20 years old:
(5) Raising the minimum legal age to 21 will mean that those who can
legally obtain tobacco are less likely to be in the same social networks
as high school students;
(6) Delaying initiation rates will likely decrease the prevalence of
tobacco users in the U.S. population; and
(7) Raising the minimum legal age will likely immediately improve the
health of adolescents and young adults by reducing the number who
suffer with adverse physiological effects:
D. Respond to findings that most (nearly 90%) of those addicted to tobacco,
start using tobacco before 21 years of age;
E. Respond to the growing rates of electronic cigarette use among youth,
which expose users to unhealthy levels of nicotine and other unknown
harmful chemicals;
F. Reduce the exposure of our youth to disease-causing toxins in secondhand
smoke and in chemicals emitted from electronic cigarettes, liquid
nicotine, shisha, herbal cigarettes, and other age-restricted products
as defined herein;
G. Prevent exposure of youth, who are particularly susceptible to addiction,
to the chemically addictive effects of tobacco and related products,
in an effort to improve public wellness and reduce health insurance
expenditures;
H. Protect young Town residents from the unregulated and unknown effects
of electronic cigarettes, herbal cigarettes, and other age-restricted
products;
I. Act in furtherance of a 2016 report from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, which recommended that states and communities
work to limit where and how e-cigarettes are sold;
J. Respond to findings made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
that e-cigarette use among teens tripled between 2013 and 2014, and
from 2011 to 2015, and the use of e-cigarettes increased nearly 10
times for high schoolers. E-cigarettes are now the primary form of
tobacco use amongst teens. Furthermore, after e-cigarettes and cigarettes,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that hookah
tobacco is the third most popular form of tobacco used by middle schoolers;
K. Respond to findings made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
which prepared a report entitled "Tobacco Use Among Middle and High
School Students — United States, 2011-2015" concluding that:
(1) Electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) use among teens has surged
in recent years, and now stands at 16% among high school students.
ENDS are the most commonly used tobacco product among high school
students; and
(2) In 2015, 8.6% of high school students were current cigar smokers;
11.5% of boys and 5.6% of girls. High school boys smoke cigars at
a higher rate than cigarettes.
L. Respond to finding that e-cigarettes and similar devices pose health
hazards and may contribute to youth smoking and reduced cessation,
regardless of nicotine content since the devices contain or produce
chemicals other than nicotine known to be toxic, carcinogenic and
causative of respiratory and heart distress. E-cigarettes and similar
devices look identical whether they contain nicotine or not, and as
a result, their use not only normalizes e-cigarette use, but also
renormalizes tobacco addiction and use of tobacco products, like combustible
cigarettes; and
M. Protect young Town residents from smokeless tobacco products, which
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are known
to cause lung, larynx, esophageal, and oral and pancreatic cancers.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a dip of smokeless
tobacco typically contains three to five times more nicotine than
a cigarette. Research shows that smokers have difficulty switching
from cigarettes to smokeless tobacco resulting in many users becoming
dual users of both cigarettes and smokeless products.
Violation of any provision of this article shall be punishable
by a civil penalty in an amount determined by the Town Clerk or his
or her designee, within the parameters of the minimum and maximum
penalties set forth in New York State Public Health Law § 1399-ee(2),
as the same may be amended from time to time.
If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, or
part of this article or the application thereof to any person, individual,
corporation, firm, partnership, or business shall be adjudged by any
court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unconstitutional,
such order or judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the
remainder thereof but shall be confined in its operation to the clause,
sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, or part of this article,
or in its specific application.
This article shall become effective March 1, 2017.