Bloomberg wants to make it illegal to display tobacco products

(CNN/WSYR-TV) -- Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on large sugary drinks in New York has gone flat, so now he’s turning to another health issue -- smoking.

Bloomberg wants to make it illegal to display tobacco products in most retail establishments.

He says such displays send the wrong message, especially to young people and suggest smoking is a normal activity.

"Smoking is going to kill a billion people this century around the world and the tobacco companies target kids and they target people in the less developed countries and people who aren't as lucky as you and I who may be just starting out at the bottom of the economic ladder," Mayor Bloomberg said. "What we're trying to do is continue the record reduction in smoking. In New York City we brought smoking among teenagers down from 18-percent to 8-percent, but the bad news is for the last three years it's sort of stagnated at that level. And smoking is going to kill these kids. It's going to leave them with not the great career prospects that you'd like, not the education that you'd like. As adults they're likely to smoke if they smoke as kids."

Bloomberg's new tobacco legislation is made up of two bills. One of them would require retailers to keep tobacco products hidden in stores. Another would increase penalties for retailers who sell tobacco without a license or fail to pay tobacco taxes.