�鶹Ů��

California Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed into law a bill raising the legal purchase age for cigarettes and other tobacco products to 21 years from 18. The new law, which takes effect June 9, is a big boost to a movement that is turning into the next major challenge to the $100 billion tobacco industry. It capped a difficult day for the tobacco industry. (Mickle and Lazo, 5/4)

California becomes just the second state after Hawaii to raise the lawful age to buy tobacco products, a move that backers applaud as a sure way to curtail harm to adolescents and reduce the number of adult smokers. (Aliferis, 5/5)

Brown signed five closely watched bills, which will also expand smoking restrictions in the workplace and on school properties. California now joins jurisdictions like Hawaii, New York City and San Francisco that have bumped the tobacco-buying age to 21 in an effort to block young people’s route to obtaining tobacco. (Koseff, 5/4)

Brown did not comment on the other bills that he signed, but state Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) said approval of his bill raising the smoking age will save lives. “The governor’s signature on Tobacco 21 is a signal that California presents a united front against Big Tobacco," Hernandez said in a statement. "Together, we stand to disrupt the chain of adolescent addiction." The package of bills was touted as the “most expansive” effort to control tobacco use in the state in more than a decade. The bills were backed by a coalition of medical groups including the American Heart Assn, American Lung Assn., American Cancer Society and the California Medical Assn. (McGreevy, 5/4)

But Brown vetoed the piece of legislation that reportedly scared tobacco companies the most -- Assembly Bill X2 10, authored by Assemblyman Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica -- which would have allowed counties to enact local cigarette taxes. In his veto message, Brown wrote that endorsing new taxes on a "blanket basis" goes too far, especially as anti-tobacco activists inch closer to placing a $2-per-pack cigarette tax on the November ballot that the industry is expected to spend tens of millions of dollars to defeat. (Calefati, 5/4)

The new laws also ban the sale of electronic cigarettes to anyone under 21 and restricts where they can be used in public places. That stipulation was swiftly condemned by the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association, which called the limitations to vapor products, some of which contain no tobacco, "counterproductive to public health." "California took a step backwards today by reclassifying vapor products as tobacco," it said. (Berlinger and Rose, 5/5)

Tobacco interests have threatened to target the changes at the ballot box if they are signed into law. Industry or other opponents would need to collect 366,000 valid signatures by early August to ask voters to reject the new laws in November. "The fierce opposition from Big Tobacco on this measure proves just how important this law is and how much their business model relies on targeting our kids," state Sen. Ed Hernandez, an Azusa Democrat and author of the tobacco age bill, said in a statement. (5/5)

Vape away. Increasingly popular e-cigarettes and cigar varieties could be exempt from some government safety regulations if House Republicans have their way. It’s a move that alarms Democrats and public health advocates who argue that it could lead to unsafe products. Legislation approved by a House committee last month would ease rules proposed by the Food and Drug Administration to regulate e-cigarettes for the first time. The legislation would prevent the FDA from requiring retroactive safety reviews of e-cigarettes that are already on the market and exempt some premium and large cigars from those same regulations. E-cigarette products introduced in the future would still undergo the safety reviews. (Jalonick, 5/5)