A volunteer director of the Greater Pittsburgh Unit of the American Cancer Society has resigned, saying the statewide cancer society didn't do enough to protect Allegheny County's tough antismoking ordinance.
But the society's director of government relations countered that her group adamantly opposed sections of the state bill that pre-empted the county ordinance. The only difference is that the cancer society simply chose not to take an all-or-nothing approach to the final bill.
Pennsylvania House Bill 1501, which became law earlier this month, substantially increases fines for tobacco sales to minors but shifts the penalties from stores to the clerks who make the sales. It also upped the fines clerks must pay.
But Greg Hartley, an anti-smoking advocate from Franklin Park, submitted his resignation Tuesday and charged the new law is not in the best interest of public health.
Under the Allegheny County ordinance, the county could have levied stringent fines for sales to minors and revoked the permits of repeat violators for up to six months.
"My resignation is not based on any problems with the local unit, but on a strong difference of opinion with the leadership of the Pennsylvania Division of the American Cancer Society," Hartley said. "Most major newspapers across the state editorialized against HB 1501 -- I consider it unfortunate the Pennsylvania ACS did not join them in opposing it."
Diane Phillips, director of government relations for the American Cancer Society, Pennsylvania Division, said she shared many of Hartley's criticisms of the bill. The final bill isn't what the society wanted, she said, but it did include some good measures.
"We believe the bill would have been stronger without pre-emption," said Diane Phillips, director of government relations for the American Cancer Society, Pennsylvania Division "Our position was that we wanted a strong bill. We tried to get rid of the parts that hurt that, but we were not successful."
Under the new law, minors who are caught buying tobacco products could be fined $100 to $1,000, see their driver's licenses suspended up to 60 days and face up to 75 hours of community service.
The law lets store owners escape punishment three times over a span of two years if their store is caught selling tobacco to minors, provided the owners can prove they trained their clerks not to sell to minors. After three strikes, fines would run from $100 to $5,000 with a possible 30-day suspension of a store's ability to sell tobacco.
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