California’s new bill banning single-use tobacco products targets waste like cigarette butts, not sales of tobacco products.
A new bill that would ban single-use vape and tobacco filters was introduced in California. If passed, Assembly Bill 1690 would ban the sale of single-use tobacco or cannabis products, with violators who sells, gives, or otherwise furnishes a single-use tobacco or cannabis product in the state facing a US$500 fine.
Assemblywoman Luz Rivas, D-San Fernando Valley, who introduced the bill, emphasized that the bill’s purpose is not to ban the sale of tobacco or cannabis in California. Rather, the bill targets the waste that is left behind by single-use products. Public agencies in California spend US$41 million a year cleaning up cigarette litter.
“For more than half a century, tobacco filters have caused a public and environmental health crisis that found renewed vigor in recent years as the tobacco industry began to sell electronic vape products,” said Rivas. “Our planet is at a critical tipping point — cigarette filters destroy our environment unlike any other discarded waste, and the toxic chemicals found in electronic vapes seep into our fragile ecosystems, all while also damaging individuals’ health with hazardous smoke.”
No target date for when the ban would come into effect was included in the bill.