By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's bill to raise from 18 to 21 the nationwide minimum age to buy all tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, has passed the Senate health committee. It includes a controversial provision that some say could leave an opening for the tobacco industry to push its agenda in state legislatures.
“I’m grateful to my colleagues for advancing our legislation to help curb the spike of youth tobacco use,” McConnell said in a news release. "Because children are extremely vulnerable to becoming addicted to nicotine and suffering its lifelong consequences, we must do everything we can to keep these products out of their hands."
The bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia.
In Kentucky, about one in four 10th and 12th graders and one in seven eighth graders vaped in 2018, according to the 2018 Kentucky Incentives for Prevention Survey.
The bill is now part of a 246-page amendment to the proposed Lower Health Care Costs Act of 2019, which includes legislation on a long list of health topics, including ending surprise medical bills, reducing the prices of prescription drugs, improving transparency in health care, improving public health, and improving the exchange of health information.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids issued a statement on June 25 that says while it supports raising the minimum age of purchase to 21, it opposes a provision "that would require each state to pass its own law raising the tobacco age to 21 (in addition to the federal requirement) and put at risk needed federal substance abuse block grant funds if a state didn't do so."
Opponents of the provision worry that it would weaken state and local efforts to reduce tobacco use and creates an opportunity for the tobacco industry to add special-interest provisions to state laws.
For example, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids notes that in the past year, tobacco companies in a number of states have sought to add provisions to Tobacco-21 bills blocking localities from taking additional actions to reduce youth tobacco use, such as prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products. The organization says it supports "compromise legislation" that addresses these concerns.
The tobacco industry, which is moving into electronic cigarettes, has supported a higher legal age to purchase tobacco products as a way to reduce pressure for youth-oriented regulations.
As of June 20, 16 states had already raised the tobacco age to 21, along with Washington, D.C., and at least 470 localities, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. It notes that the strength of each law "varies substantially." Such a bill was introduced in Kentucky during the last legislative session, but failed to get out of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
An editorial in The Winchester Sun applauds the concept of raising the legal age, but adds that McConnell's bill doesn't do enough, and suggest that this piece of legislation should simply be an "opening bid."
"Public outcry over companies making money by selling flavored addiction juice to kids has forced those companies and their supporters to the table," the editorial says. "National T-21 legislation is their dream scenario. The legal age to buy e-cigarette products is already 18, so the law extends that prohibition by three years. In exchange for those three years, they want to be free to make their products as addictive and enticing as possible, including in ways that might appeal to minors."
Kaine has said requiring states to raise their own laws would "get more enforcement," similar to fair-housing laws. As for concerns that it could give the tobacco industry the ability to “play mischief” in states, "He said that’s already happening, with or without the bill," Inside Health Policy reports.
Another bipartisan bill, called Tobacco to 21, has also been introduced in the Senate that does not include the provision. The two Democratic sponsors of this bill, Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Dick Durbin of Illinois, said in a May 21 news release that "forcing state action creates a dangerous loophole that gives the tobacco industry an opening to intensify their efforts at the state level ... "
The McConnell press release provided a list of nearly 60 organizations that support his bill. Ten of them were from Kentucky, including: the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky; the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce; the Kentucky Hospital Association; the Kentucky Medical Association; Kentucky Youth Advocates; the Kentucky Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; CHI Saint Joseph Health; the Kentucky Chapter of the American College of Cardiology; St. Elizabeth's Healthcare in Northern Kentucky; and Hosparus Health.
Kentucky Health News
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's bill to raise from 18 to 21 the nationwide minimum age to buy all tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, has passed the Senate health committee. It includes a controversial provision that some say could leave an opening for the tobacco industry to push its agenda in state legislatures.
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The bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia.
In Kentucky, about one in four 10th and 12th graders and one in seven eighth graders vaped in 2018, according to the 2018 Kentucky Incentives for Prevention Survey.
The bill is now part of a 246-page amendment to the proposed Lower Health Care Costs Act of 2019, which includes legislation on a long list of health topics, including ending surprise medical bills, reducing the prices of prescription drugs, improving transparency in health care, improving public health, and improving the exchange of health information.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids issued a statement on June 25 that says while it supports raising the minimum age of purchase to 21, it opposes a provision "that would require each state to pass its own law raising the tobacco age to 21 (in addition to the federal requirement) and put at risk needed federal substance abuse block grant funds if a state didn't do so."
Opponents of the provision worry that it would weaken state and local efforts to reduce tobacco use and creates an opportunity for the tobacco industry to add special-interest provisions to state laws.
For example, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids notes that in the past year, tobacco companies in a number of states have sought to add provisions to Tobacco-21 bills blocking localities from taking additional actions to reduce youth tobacco use, such as prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products. The organization says it supports "compromise legislation" that addresses these concerns.
The tobacco industry, which is moving into electronic cigarettes, has supported a higher legal age to purchase tobacco products as a way to reduce pressure for youth-oriented regulations.
As of June 20, 16 states had already raised the tobacco age to 21, along with Washington, D.C., and at least 470 localities, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. It notes that the strength of each law "varies substantially." Such a bill was introduced in Kentucky during the last legislative session, but failed to get out of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
An editorial in The Winchester Sun applauds the concept of raising the legal age, but adds that McConnell's bill doesn't do enough, and suggest that this piece of legislation should simply be an "opening bid."
"Public outcry over companies making money by selling flavored addiction juice to kids has forced those companies and their supporters to the table," the editorial says. "National T-21 legislation is their dream scenario. The legal age to buy e-cigarette products is already 18, so the law extends that prohibition by three years. In exchange for those three years, they want to be free to make their products as addictive and enticing as possible, including in ways that might appeal to minors."
Kaine has said requiring states to raise their own laws would "get more enforcement," similar to fair-housing laws. As for concerns that it could give the tobacco industry the ability to “play mischief” in states, "He said that’s already happening, with or without the bill," Inside Health Policy reports.
Another bipartisan bill, called Tobacco to 21, has also been introduced in the Senate that does not include the provision. The two Democratic sponsors of this bill, Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Dick Durbin of Illinois, said in a May 21 news release that "forcing state action creates a dangerous loophole that gives the tobacco industry an opening to intensify their efforts at the state level ... "
The McConnell press release provided a list of nearly 60 organizations that support his bill. Ten of them were from Kentucky, including: the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky; the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce; the Kentucky Hospital Association; the Kentucky Medical Association; Kentucky Youth Advocates; the Kentucky Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; CHI Saint Joseph Health; the Kentucky Chapter of the American College of Cardiology; St. Elizabeth's Healthcare in Northern Kentucky; and Hosparus Health.
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