An additional provision in the Act would amend an education law to ensure that all regulated tobacco products are prohibited in public school buildings. Hall said the most important thing is to think about law enforcement ahead of time. This includes understanding how existing tobacco laws are enforced. For example, the laws of the states of Kansas and Missouri set the minimum age at 18, so state-funded compliance audits only apply the 18-and-over rule. However, groups in the Kansas City area were able to work closely with the county health department to help with law enforcement and secured foundation funds to cover costs. TOPEKA — A Kansas bill heard Monday aims to bring the state into compliance with federal regulations on the minimum age for cigarette and tobacco consumption. High smoking rates are costly not only for smokers, but also for governments and businesses. One particularly compelling piece of data shared by the group comes from a study by Ohio State University that showed that the cost to a private employer for an employee of smoking is on average $5,816 more per year than the cost of an employee who has never smoked. This calculation takes into account health care costs, as well as the cost of absenteeism, lost productivity and smoking breaks.
Hall said the figure was “really compelling in getting local governments to act. This very quickly becomes a significant economic impact on their community. In October 2013, New York City made history by becoming the first major city in the United States to raise the legal age to sell tobacco to 21. Hall said he first heard about Tobacco 21 from a doctor at the University of Kansas Medical Center shortly after, in the spring of 2014, and began observing Tobacco 21`s political activity across the country. “My parents both died of a tobacco-related disease in the mid-70s. Both started smoking as teenagers. Both should have lived another 10 years,” Eplee said. “This bill, in my view, ends the work to ensure that the state of Kansas can continue to promote a healthy lifestyle and no legal tobacco activity until age 21.” While cities in the greater Kansas City area have yet to focus much on point-of-sale tobacco control policy, Hall noted that the focus on tobacco21 has brought other tobacco-related issues into the minds of City Council members. A number of cities have adopted other tobacco directives at the same time as tobacco.21 For example, Kansas City, MO, and Kansas City, KS both passed laws that included e-cigarettes in their air pollution control regulations at the same time as the passage of Tobacco 21. Another city passed a smoke-free parking ordinance at the same time.
In addition, it is important to think about the wording of the law in terms of enforcement. The enforcement of the new tobacco laws 21 in the KS metropolitan area depends on the jurisdiction. While Hall says all T21 subway laws include a penalty for the seller, some also include penalties for purchase due to existing tobacco control laws, though few, if any, include penalties for possession. Learn more about the difference between the age of purchase and the age of sale. There were no opponents of the law, though Sara Prem, president of the Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition, raised concerns about some provisions of the law. While Prem acknowledged the importance of raising the age to 21, she said the bill`s penalties for minors who buy, use and possess these products are not an effective tobacco control strategy. As Hall said, “It`s just one piece of the puzzle. Preventing adolescent smoking requires a multifaceted approach – it is just one tool.
“[room height=”10”] 8. Campaign for tobacco-free children. State excise rates and classifications for cigarettes. www.tobaccofreekids.org/assets/factsheets/0097.pdf. Accessed. In 2009, during the administration of Barack Obama, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was passed, which again established a federal minimum age of eighteen and prohibited the FDA from setting a higher minimum age of purchase. [8] From 1993 to 2012, the smoking age was eighteen or nineteen in all states. In 2005, the city of Needham, Massachusetts, became the first jurisdiction in the country to raise the minimum purchasing age to 21. [9] Between 2012 and 2015, local communities in the United States. began raising the smoking age to twenty-one, with Hawaii becoming the first state to increase its age to twenty-one in 2015.
[10] This began the shift to states that eventually raised their age to twenty-one due to the teen vaping crisis. [11] In 2019, eighteen states had their minimum purchasing age at twenty-one, thirty states had their age at eighteen, two had it at nineteen, and the District of Columbia had it at twenty-one. On December 20, 2019, with the passage of fiscal year 2020 funds signed by President Donald Trump, the federal age for smokers was raised to twenty-one by changing the minimum age of purchase in the Synar Amendment of 1992. [12] The U.S. Department of Defense followed suit and raised the age to buy tobacco at military bases in the United States to twenty-one. and abroad. [13] State tobacco laws were partially amended in 1992 under the Bill Clinton administration when Congress passed the Synar Amendment, forcing states to enact their own laws to have a minimum age of eighteen to purchase tobacco or lose funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. [4] The amendment was adopted in response to adolescent smoking rates. [5] All states raised their age to eighteen or nineteen in 1993.
In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration issued regulations imposing the minimum age at the federal level of eighteen,[6] although the U.S. Supreme Court later terminated the FDA`s jurisdiction over tobacco, ending its enforcement practices and leaving that to the states. [7] Representative John Eplee, a Republican and physician from Atchison, supported the bill to reduce the “catastrophic downstream health effects” that adolescent tobacco and cigarette use can have throughout life. In the Kansas City metropolitan area, 22 communities have passed ordinances raising the legal retail age for tobacco products to 21. We sat down with Scott Hall, senior vice president of civic and community initiatives at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, to learn more about their “Tobacco 21” movement. Tobacco21 will continue to grow in the greater Kansas City area, which crosses two states and includes nearly 100 communities. A number of local communities in the region are working on regulations in the first half of 2017. They are also exploring other tobacco prevention and cessation measures, including expanding air pollution laws and increasing tobacco taxes. “Underage sanctions can distract from more effective tobacco control strategies and free the tobacco industry from responsibility for its irresponsible marketing practices and sales by retailers to minors,” Prem said. “In addition, these laws have been found to disproportionately affect minorities, particularly African Americans and young Hispanics.” At the end of 2019, the federal law “Tobacco 21” was signed, which raises the minimum age for the sale of tobacco products from 18 to 21 years.
The Kansas measure would even bring statewide regulation to state regulations on the minimum age to purchase or possess cigarettes, e-cigarettes and tobacco products. This “compliance law” is Eplein`s third attempt at a law to restrict tobacco use before the age of 21, although language regarding taste, vapes and menthol cigarettes was dropped this year. A similar bill died in the House of Representatives last year after passing the House Federal and State Affairs Committee. The minimum age to buy tobacco in the U.S. prior to 2019 varied by state and territory. As of December 2019, the smoking age is 21 in all states and territories after the federal law passed in Congress and was signed by President Donald Trump in December 2019. When they pitched Tobacco 21 as an idea to both supporting organizations and city or county policymakers, they first presented the states` tobacco problem to show why policy was needed. Smoking rates in Kansas and Missouri are both higher than the national average.
Missouri has the lowest cigarette tax in the country, at $0.17 per pack. Rep. John Eplee, R-Atchison, echoes ongoing efforts to raise the minimum age for smoking and purchasing to 21. His bill would bring Kansas into compliance with federal law. (26. January 2021, photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) In the United States, laws regarding the minimum age for purchasing and consuming tobacco products have been enacted by the states, territories, the District of Columbia and the federal government.
