Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Report: Raising Tobacco-Purchase Age Would Avert Thousands Of Deaths
Among a generation of kids ranging from today's 15-year-olds to babies only now being contemplated, shifting the minimum legal age for tobacco purchases from 18 to 21 across the United States now would prevent a quarter-million premature deaths, says a new report. For children born between 2000 and 2019, such a policy shift would reclaim a projected 4.2 million years of life now expected to be lost to tobacco-related illnesses, an Institute of Medicine analysis concludes. And down the road even further, boosting to 21 the minimum age for those buying cigarettes would save 4,000 babies whose lives would otherwise be claimed by sudden infant death syndrome. (Healy, 3/12)
About 95% of smokers pick up the habit before 21, studies show. Raising the age to buy tobacco to 21 would make it harder for teens to pass for legal age or get cigarettes from their older high school friends, says Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "With 2,800 youth trying their first cigarette every day and many using multiple tobacco products, powerful interventions are needed to keep youth from lifelong addictions to these deadly products," says Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. (Szabo, 3/12)
Only Congress, which required that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration commission the report, has the power to increase the tobacco purchase age nationally. States and cities can raise the age in their jurisdictions. The report by a panel at the independent Institute of Medicine examined the impact of increasing the age to 19 on teenagers. The committee also looked at how raising the age to 21 would affect 18- to 20-year-olds, and how boosting it to 25 would affect 21- to 25-year-olds. (Mickle, 3/12)
Raising the legal age to buy tobacco to higher than 18 would likely prevent premature death for hundreds of thousands of people, according to a report issued Thursday by the Institute of Medicine. The report examines the public health effects of increasing the age to 19, 21 or 25. While it doesn't make any recommendations, officials say, it provides the scientific guidance state and local governments need to evaluate policies aimed at reducing tobacco use by young people. (3/13)
