Senate Bill S5185

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S5185

SPONSOR: GOUNARDES
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the general business law, in relation to prohibiting the
sale of high purity sodium nitrite

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To restrict the sale of sodium nitrite for for non-institutional or
scientific purposes

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one of this bill adds a new section 392-k to the General Busi-
ness Law barring any person, corporation, limited liability company,
firm, online platform, or other business entity from selling sodium
nitrite of greater than 6.25% purity without proof of its intended use
for institutional or scientific purposes. Any entity that is able to
produce such proof must retain it along with copies of sales records,
proof of age, and proof of use from all purchasers.  Sale to any indi-
              

vidual under the age of twenty one shall be wholly prohibited.

This section also provides a private right of action for individuals
harmed by a violation of this act for compensatory and actual damages,
punitive damages, and attorneys fees.

Section two provides an immediate effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Sodium nitrite, a chemical compound soluble in water, is typically used
for the industrial production of rubber, industrial greases, dyes, and
pesticides. It may also be mixed with sodium thiosulfate to treat cyan-
ide poisoning. At six percent purity levels, it is mixed with other
ingredients to form curing salts, which are available for purchase by
restaurant owners, meat distributors, home food preservers, and consum-
ers to cure meat and impart the recognizable pink hue associated with
ham, bacon, hot dogs, and bologna. At greater than six percent purity,
however, sodium nitrite has only one non-industrial function: to assist
an individual in the taking of his or her life.

According to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
suicides have increased by 45% among 15-24-year-olds and over 30% among
25-34-year-olds since 2009. A December 2021 New York Times investigative
report "Where the Despairing Log On, and Learn Ways to Die" found at
least ten people who had killed themselves with sodium nitrite after
following the suggestion of a prominent suicide website in the past two
years, including a 16-year-old girl in Ohio, a pair of college freshmen
in Pennsylvania and Missouri, and a 27-year-old in Texas whose mother
has filed a wrongful-death suit against Amazon.  A study of 47 cases of
poisoning by sodium nitrite reported to the National Poison Data System
over a five-year period found that suicide attempts with the chemical
compound had been increasing since 2017, and the Times investigation
discovered 300 members of the suicide site announcing intentions to use
sodium nitrite to kill themselves.


This deeply disturbing arrival on the suicide scene is due in large part
to its ease of access and administration. Online suicide forums refer
their readers to Amazon for the purchase of a product called "HiMedia
Sodium Nitrate," sold at 98% purity levels for as little as $18 (or as
one 16-year-old victim said "only two hours of babysitting money") with
overnight delivery. As pending lawsuits against Amazon have highlighted,
Amazon uses nudge techniques such as "Customers who viewed this item
also viewed" and "Frequently bought together" features to pair sodium
nitrite purchases with Tagamet, an acid reduction medication that
prevents life-saving vomiting after sodium nitrite ingestion, small
scales to weigh the poison, and the suicide instruction guidebook
"Peaceful Pill Handbook" by Dr. Phillip Nitschke. Amazon also removes
one-star reviews of sodium nitrite from grieving family members, leaving
it with an artificially high customer rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, uses
cookies to track users who viewed sodium nitrite but did not complete
the purchase and then advertises the product to them on other sites, and
sends emails to sodium nitrite viewers urging them to check out their
online shopping cart.

Many other online retailers, such as Etsy and eBay, have discontinued
sodium nitrite sales after learning of this trend. The United Kingdom
has deemed sodium nitrite a "reportable substance," wherein retailers
must report suspicious purchases of the compound by individuals to local
authorities. Other countries such as The Netherlands have tried to
organize actions to cease individual sales of sodium nitrite. On January
25th, 2022, the United States Congress sent a letter to the President
and CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy, expressing deep concern at the role the
e-tail giant appears to be playing in assisting suicide and requesting
data on the number of units of sodium nitrite sold, Amazon's labeling,
photography, and product description methods, and the site's manipu-
lation of user reviews. Sodium nitrite at such high purity levels
escapes federal regulation, as it is neither a food that can be approved
by the FDA nor a drug enforced against by the DEA.

This bill reckons with the deadly, starring role that this chemical
compound plays in teen and adult suicide by banning sales of sodium
nitrite at greater than 6.25% purity levels without proof of an intended
industrial or scientific use, and banning sales altogether to any indi-
vidual under the age of twenty-one. It also creates a right of action
for any individual harmed by violations of the act for compensatory and
actual damages, punitive damages, and attorneys fees.

There is simply no valid personal use of sodium nitrite at the 98% puri-
ty levels at which online retailers sell it. This bill takes a simple,
clear approach to the public policy problem of Internet facilitation of
suicide via chemical preservative by banning certain sales of sodium
nitrite.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

None

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

TBD

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediate