Ahead of what Democrats say will be an historically active legislative session in Albany, here are some notable new laws coming to the Bronx at the beginning of 2019.

Tobacco Sale Banned in Pharmacies

As part of a bill passed in 2017, New York City pharmacies will no longer sell tobacco products. The nation’s largest pharmacy chain, CVS, famously stopped selling tobacco products in 2014, but now all New York City pharmacies will join them. The law will also affect big box stores and supermarkets with pharmacy departments. According to Councilman Brad Lander, the pharmacy ban and heavy taxation of tobacco products will lead to 160,000 fewer smokers over the next three years.

New Labor Laws
In 2019, employees will now be able to take off up to 10 weeks a year to care for a new child, a sick family member or when a family member is deployed on active military service. Employees will receive 55 percent of weekly wages during their hiatus.

The scheduled minimum wage increases continue, as they will until 2021. On Dec. 31, 2018, New York City businesses with 11 or more employees were now required to pay an hourly wage of at least $15, up from the current $13 an hour. Employees at city businesses with 10 or fewer employees will see their hourly wages go up from $12 to $13.50. Outside of the five boroughs, minimum wage will go up from $11 to $12 an hour on Long Island and in Westchester County, and from $10.40 to $11.10 an hour in all other counties.

Employees of the state government and state contractors are now required to undergo annual sexual harassment prevention training.

Free Prostate Screenings
Beginning Jan. 1, health insurers in New York will be required to offer free prostate screenings to men with a prior history of prostate cancer, men age 40 and older with a family history of prostate cancer, and men 50 and over who are asymptomatic.

Prostate cancer is commonplace as cancers go (11.2 percent of men will be diagnosed, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute) and can be easily treatable if caught early. According to the NCI, an estimated 164,690 new cases were identified nationwide in 2018 and an estimated 29,430 men died from prostate cancer in 2018.

And the rest…

• All new, publicly accessible bathrooms in New York will now have to include diaper changing tables, including men’s restrooms.

• Beginning on Jan. 30, New York prisons will be authorized to use body scanners that detect non-metallic weapons hidden on inmates bodies.

• Volunteer firefighters with five years of service time and certain types of cancer will receive state disability coverage and death benefits. The measure is not retroactive.

• Drugstores and mail-order pharmacies will now be required to allow returns of unused prescription drugs for free. The “Drug Take Back Act,” co-sponsored by three Bronx state senators, intends to decrease prescription drug abuse and prevent improperly discarded drugs from ending up in the water supply.