Hawaii Raises Legal Smoking Age to 21

Hawaii has become the first state to pass a law raising the legal smoking age to 21, Reuters reports. The law also outlaws the sale, purchase or use of e-cigarettes for anyone under 21. The measure will take effect on January 1, 2016.

“Raising the minimum age as part of our comprehensive tobacco control efforts will help reduce tobacco use among our youth and increase the likelihood that our keiki (children) will grow up to be tobacco-free,” Governor David Ige said in a statement.

The legal age to purchase tobacco is 19 in Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey and Utah. The minimum age has been raised to 21 in dozens of cities and towns, including New York. Legislators in Washington state and California have also introduced measures to raise the legal smoking age to 21 in recent months, the article notes.

The Institute of Medicine issued a report earlier this year that concluded if every state were to immediately ban tobacco sales to those under 21, the smoking rate would fall 12 percent. The decrease would prevent 249,000 premature deaths among the generation born between 2000 and 2019, the report noted.

A 2009 law that gives the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to regulate tobacco forbids the agency from setting a legal purchasing age for tobacco older than 18. The law required the FDA to study the consequences of raising the minimum age.