IOM: Raising Legal Age To Buy Cigarettes To 21 Would Slash Smoking Rate, Save Lives

Major newspapers, wire sources and media outlets cover the release of a report yesterday by the Institute of Medicine suggesting that raising the legal age to purchase cigarettes to age 21 in the US would greatly reduce the number of people who take up smoking and would also prevent a large number of deaths and health issues.

USA Today (3/13, Szabo) reports that a report released March 12 by the Institute of Medicine and requested by the Food and Drug Administration suggests that “raising the legal age to buy cigarettes to 21 would slash the smoking rate and save hundreds of thousands of lives by the end of the century.” According to USA Today, “the report stems from the 2009 law” called the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act “that gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco.” Under the law, the FDA was forbidden “from setting a legal buying age for tobacco older than 18, but required…to study the consequences of such a change.”

Related Links:

— “Raising tobacco age would save lives, report says,” Liz Szabo, USA Today, March 12, 2015.

Posted in In The News.