Profession Supports Tobacco 21

(August 24, 2016) The OOA and Ohio ACOFP have endorsed “Tobacco 21,” legislation that would make it unlawful to sell or distribute a tobacco product to anyone under the age of 21. The effort would reduce the number of young people who use and become addicted to tobacco products and, ultimately, help to reduce the disease and premature death that these products cause.

Tobacco products remain the leading preventable cause of death in Ohio and the United States and are responsible for over $5.6 billion in health care costs in Ohio each year. Tobacco use almost always begins during adolescence and young adulthood. About 95 percent of adult smokers began smoking before they turned 21. If current trends continue, 259,000 of Ohio’s youth alive today will die prematurely from a smoking-related illness.

Increasing the age for sale of tobacco products to 21 will help counter the tobacco industry’s efforts to target young people at a critical time when many move from experimenting with tobacco to regular smoking. In Ohio alone, the tobacco industry spends over $1 million a day marketing its products. It will also help keep tobacco out of high schools, where younger teens often obtain tobacco products from older students.

Last year, the Institute of Medicine concluded that increasing the tobacco sale age would reduce the number of adolescents and young adults who start smoking; reduce smoking-caused deaths; and immediately improve the health of adolescents, young adults and young mothers who would be deterred from smoking, as well as their children. The greatest impact would be among adolescents age 15 to 17, who would no longer be able to pass for legal age and would have a harder time obtaining cigarettes from their older friends and classmates.

Increasing the tobacco sale age to 21 has broad public support. A July 2015 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found 75 percent of adults support increasing the minimum age for sale of tobacco products to 21.