11:22p.m. EDT March 20,2013 HAVERSTRAW, N.Y. -- When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced this week his new legislation to further reduce the smoking rate by banning tobacco displays at retail stores, cheers echoed in the Lower Hudson Valley.
"I think it's amazing," Denise Hogan of Nyack said Wednesday.
A little more than a year ago, Hogan -- the Rockland County coordinator for POW'R Against Tobacco, a coalition that serves Putnam, Orange, Westchester and Rockland counties focusing on lowering tobacco use -- approached the village of Haverstraw to consider adopting a local law banning stores that are accessible to minors from openly displaying products containing tobacco or nicotine, such as cigarettes, cigars and pipe and chewing tobacco.
Haverstraw Mayor Michael Kohut and the village's board of trustees took POW'R's proposal to heart and enacted the law in April as the first municipality in the nation to establish such an ordinance.
But in June, seven tobacco manufacturers and the New York Association of Convenience Stores filed a federal lawsuit against Haverstraw to challenge the law, arguing it violates their freedom of speech.
To avoid the risk of incurring hefty legal fees to fight the lawsuit, the village rescinded the law, which was supposed to go into effect next month.
"I never really felt that Haverstraw lost. Haverstraw was the first in the country," Hogan said. "I hope that New York City has the financial ability to push it through because a small village like Haverstraw with only 11,000 people couldn't possibly fight seven tobacco companies and the head of retail association."
Kohut said felt vindicated by the Bloomberg proposal.
"I hope that they can see it all the way through," Kohut said. "I hope that … when all's said and done, their laws are upheld so that other municipalities can join in."
Una Diffley, director of public health promotion and education with the Rockland County Department of Health, echoed Kohut's comment, saying that Rockland wanted Haverstraw's effort to be a success.
"I think if New York City is successful, that will set the trend for others to follow," Diffley said. "I think the communities that are interested in this would need somebody like New York City to fight the fight."
Kohut and his administration said they pushed the law because by limiting tobacco displays at bodegas and other stores where children shop, the local ordinance could reduce smoking among young people.
Bloomberg's tobacco product display restriction bill, which was introduced to the New York City Council on Wednesday, shares the goal of Haverstraw's attempt.
Jim Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores, called the idea absurd, saying he believes that retail stores have a right to display the products that they have been licensed to sell.
"The mayor apparently believes that a mere sight of packs of cigarettes displayed on the wall behind the counter of the store compels kids to start smoking. I think that's a stretch," Calvin said.
Hogan, a lung cancer survivor, said it's not a stretch.
"It's proven that the more tobacco products kids see, the more likely they are to smoke," said Hogan. "Adults know what they smoke. They know where to get it. So the tobacco companies are definitely targeting our youths, which they call 'replacement smokers.' We have to protect our youths."
