The New York Health Department is considering a bold move to ban all tobacco products, even though lawmakers have rejected similar proposals in the past. This could be a game-changer in the fight against smoking and its harmful effects.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is considering a bold move to ban all tobacco products in the state within the next decade. The Department of Health commissioned a survey to explore the idea, which was distributed to state and county leaders. The survey asked questions about limiting the number of retailers who can sell tobacco products, prohibiting sales near schools, and banning the sale of all tobacco products to those born after a specific date. The move signals the governor’s intention to remove tobacco sales in New York, and one insider said they “have never seen anything like this where [the state] uses this kind of focus grouping, alliance building, momentum building.”

While lawmakers have previously rejected Hochul’s proposal to ban flavored tobacco products, the state’s Health Department estimates that the tobacco industry spends $9.1 billion annually on marketing and promoting its products in the U.S. In New York State, menthol cigarettes are used by over half of all adult smokers, with 86% of black and 72% of Hispanic smokers exclusively smoking menthol cigarettes.

While convenience store owners argue that implementing a ban would not stop people from smoking tobacco and likely put many stores out of business, the state’s Health Department reports that smoking kills 28,000 adults every year in New York, and approximately 1.7 million New Yorkers continue to smoke cigarettes.

The debate over banning tobacco products in New York is ongoing, but one thing is clear: tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable death in the state and the rest of the nation.