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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
04/19/2024 12:45 PM
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20150&cosponId=18690
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House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: July 6, 2015 01:50 PM
From: Representative Vanessa Lowery Brown
To: All House members
Subject: Legislation: Increasing the Minimum Age of Legal Access to Tobacco Products from 18 Years of Age to 21 Years of Age
 

In the very near future, I intend to introduce legislation that proposes to increase the minimum age of legal access to tobacco products in Pennsylvania from 18 years of age to 21 years of age.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 42.1 million adults in the United States smoke cigarettes. The CDC also cites that cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, which accounts for more than 480,000 deaths a year, or 1 of every 5 deaths. Therefore, enabling our young people to have access to a product that has been medically proven to have more deleterious effects than alcohol, a product of which has a minimum age of legal access of 21 years of age, seems not only contradictory but imprudent on our part as law makers.

Even more compelling is the subject of the initiation age of tobacco use. According to a report issued by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in March of this year entitled “Public Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age of Legal Access to Tobacco Products,” approximately 90 percent of adults who become daily smokers report first using tobacco products before reaching 19 years of age. This report also highlights that the parts of the brain most responsible for decision making, impulse control, sensation seeking, and susceptibility to peer pressure continue to develop and change throughout young adulthood. This results in adolescent brains being uniquely vulnerable to the adverse effects of nicotine.

Simply put, raising the minimum age of legal access to 21 years of age would likely prevent or significantly delay initiation of tobacco use by adolescents and young adults. In fact, based upon the findings of the aforementioned report, if the minimum age of legal access was raised to 21 years of age, there would be a 12 percent decrease in the prevalence of tobacco use among adults. The heath-related benefits that are to be realized by such action would also include but not be limited to the following:
  • A proportional decrease in smoking-related diseases, such as cancer and heart disease;
  • A decrease in maternal, fetal and infant outcomes, such as preterm births, low birth weight and sudden infant death; and
  • A reduction in the overall amount of exposure to secondhand smoke
Raising the minimum age of legal access to tobacco products is not a novel idea. As recent as June 15, 2015, the State of Hawaii became the first state to raise the minimum age of legal access to tobacco products. Additionally, at this writing there are at least 80 localities in 8 states that have also raised the minimum age of legal access to tobacco to 21 years of age.

When confronted with data that clearly buttresses the argument that our young people’s current degree of accessibility to tobacco products needs to be further restricted, we must begin to look beyond the recreational conventions of our society and explore alternative options that put the health and welfare of Pennsylvanians, particularly our youth, first.

I ask that you please join me in co-sponsoring this vitally important piece of legislation.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding this legislation, please contact Brandon Flood in my office at (717) 772-6955 or BFlood@pahouse.net.

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