Today, the Institute of Medicine released a new report evaluating the public health effects of reducing teenagers' access to cigarettes and other tobacco products. Right now, in most places in the United States, you must be 18 years old to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products. But a few states and cities have higher minimums, and in 2013, the IOM convened a committee, at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to examine the potential effects of a higher minimum legal age for tobacco access across the country.
The committee, which was led by Richard Bonnie of the University of Virginia and included Stanford adolescent medicine expert Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD, reviewed the existing scientific literature on tobacco use in teens. They also devised mathematical models to predict what would happen if the federal minimum legal age were 19, 21 or 25.
The report brief (.pdf) says, in part:
Based on its review of the literature, the committee concludes that overall, increasing the MLA [minimum legal age] for tobacco products will likely prevent or delay initiation of tobacco use by adolescents and young adults. The age group most impacted will be those age 15 to 17 years. The committee also concludes that the impact of raising the MLA to 21 will likely be substantially higher than raising it to 19. However, the added effect of raising the MLA from 21 to 25 will likely be considerably less.
The parts of the brain most responsible for decision making, impulse control, sensation seeking, and susceptibility to peer pressure continue to develop and change through young adulthood, and adolescent brains are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of nicotine. In addition, the majority of underage users rely on social sources—like family and friends—to get tobacco. Raising the MLA to 19 will therefore not have much of an effect on reducing the social sources of those in high school. Raising the MLA to 21 will mean that those who can legally obtain tobacco are less likely to be in the same social networks as high school students.
Although it can take time to fully realize the benefits of reduced smoking, since heart disease, lung cancer and other diseases linked to smoking take decades to develop, the payoff would ultimately be significant, the report adds:
...if the MLA were raised now to 21 nationwide, there would be approximately 223,000 fewer premature deaths, 50,000 fewer deaths from lung cancer, and 4.2 million fewer years of life lost for those born between 2000 and 2019.
Previously: How e-cigarettes are sparking a new wave of tobacco marketing, To protect teens' health, marijuana should not be legalized, says American Academy of Pediatrics and UN's top health official: Anti-tobacco efforts can lead to better health "in every corner of the world"
Photo by Thomas Lieser
