New Year brings new laws to NYS

Reprinted from this WRGB Albany

New Year brings new laws to NYS

Emma Quinn WRGB Albany

BY EMMA QUINN CITY OF ALBANY - PUBLISHED DEC. 31, 2022

CAPITAL REGION, NY (WRGB) — A new year brings new laws to New York state come 2023.

Of those laws is providing better quality care to nursing home patients with mandated staff to patient ratios.

Nursing home facilities are to staff every 3.5 hours per resident per day.

But officials at the New York Health Facilities Association say staffing shortages could be impactful.

“So, right now the federal data, the payment-based journal data that's reported by every nursing home to CMS and the federal government shows that 75% of nursing homes throughout New York, and there are 614,”said Stephan Hanse, Executive Director. “That 75% will not be able to meet this 3.5-hour standard."

Come February more transparency will be mandated when reporting viral outbreaks within facilities.

This comes amid former governor Andrew Cuomo's COVID nursing home scandal.

"Right now nursing homes are required to report infectious outbreaks every 24 hours, this law that takes effect in early February will require that notification to be every 12 hours,” Hanse added. “It'll be required to notify residents throughout the nursing homes and their families."

Meanwhile taking care of our environment has led to new legislation including the ban of the chemical 14 Dioxane; a chemical found inside bottles of everyday products and can contaminate drinking water.

"It's causing huge problems down in Long Island and other places that are really dependent on underground aquifers and so getting rid of 1 4 Dioxane in products that get washed right down the drain is incredible logical approach to protecting people when they are using the products but also making sure we're protecting everyone's drinking water supply," said Bobbi Wilding, Executive Director of Clean and Healthy NY.

The chemical can lead to irritation in the eyes and respiratory tract; long term exposure can affect our central nervous systems, liver and kidneys.

There is also a toxic chemical ban in children's products.

“We think this is important because we have seen that benzene is present in some personal care products like spray sunscreen," Wilding added. "It's going to make our kids just safer and less likely to get chronic diseases down the road."

Other laws going into effect are a paid family leave law that adds siblings to the definition of family member for the purposes of paid family leave.

New York airports will now have to create lactation rooms in secure areas for nursing mothers in a private area near security check-points.

Come March, phone numbers will be added a do-not-call list at the outset of certain telemarketing calls.