SOCHI, RUSSIA SEPTEMBER 18, 2019: A woman lights a cigarette. Dmitry feoktistov/TASS (Photo by Dmitry FeoktistovTASS via Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA - Pennsylvania officials have passed a new bill that would raise the minimum legal age from 18 to 21 in order to buy tobacco and vaping products in the state on Wednesday.
Senate bill 473 was approved by a 43-6 vote and will now go before the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for consideration.
The bill, also named the Tobacco 21 legislation, was introduced by Senator Mario Scavello, of Monroe County, in December 2018.
“We are seeing an ever-increasing number of teens ages 15-17 that are getting cigarettes from their 18 year old High School peers,” Sen. Scavello stated in a memo at the time the legislation was introduced. “Increasing the minimum legal sales age to age 21 would delay or reduce tobacco usage to the greatest extent, and could have the greatest effect in reducing underage access to tobacco through the social source of legal-age peers such as described above.”
To support his submission of the bill, Sen. Scavello explained that it’s “estimated that across the United States, 5,600,000 youth ages 17 and under are projected to die prematurely from a tobacco-related illness if prevalence rates do not change.”
If the Tobacco 21 bill becomes law, Pennsylvania will join 18 other states including New York, New Jersey, and Ohio In raising their minimum legal tobacco-buying age.