American Lung Association Supports Bill Raising the Tobacco Buying Age to 21
Tuesday, September 3rd, 2019 -- 8:40 AM
(WRN) -The American Lung Association is all-in, on a bill to raise the age to buy tobacco and vape products.The bipartisan legislation would raise the age to 21, and the Lung Association's Donna Wininsky says that would put it on a par with alcohol.
"These are both things that can alder brain chemicals and are addictive. And we would prefer to not have teenagers using them."
Research shows that people are far less likely to start smoking once they're 21.
"It's close to a 90 percent rate, that if someone hasn't started using tobacco products by the time they turn 21, the chances are just very, very slim that they're going to pick it up afterword."
Wininsky says it just makes sense.
"A 21-year-old is going to have very different ideas than an 18-year-old in terms of the behaviors that they want to pursue. So we're looking for that additional maturity, we're looking at getting the cigarettes and the smoking paraphernalia out of the high schools."
Claims by the vaping industry that it's products are not meant for teenagers to use are ringing hollow with Wininsky.
"I don't think an industry names and flavors products like 'bubble gum' and 'cotton candy' and 'chocolate' and all of the other flavors that both the tobacco and the vaping industries use, unless they are intentionally targeting kids."
Is vaping any less bad for you than smoking? Wininsky says neither one is something for teenagers to be doing.
"There is enough evidence on vaping products to know that they do contain chemicals, the flavors themselves contain additional chemicals.They contain heavy metals, the contain fine particulates. And none of this should be inhaled into the lungs."
The Lung Association is fully supportive of a bipartisan bill at the Capitol, which would raise the age to but tobacco and vape products to 21.
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