Do age restrictions curb youth smoking?
The answer might seem obvious, but a Prince George researcher is launching a study to determine if it is indeed true
It seems like plain common sense, but then so too at one time did the notion that the sun circled the Earth.
Dr. Russ Callaghan of the University of Northern B.C. has received a $75,000 grant to study whether age restrictions on tobacco purchases really do help curb smoking among youth.
Based on previous research he’s done on alcohol and cannabis use, he suspects the answer will be yes, but his will be practically the first research to provide a scientific basis whether it applies to tobacco as well.
“I was surprised there’s been so little research in this area,” Callaghan said over the phone from Prince George.
“There is just so little science as to whether age-based restrictions on tobacco purchase help limit smoking uptake or prevalence among youth.
“There’s research on compliance by retailers and on sales behaviour, but not much has been done about what most people are concerned about: Uptake of smoking by the youth population.”
You have to be 19 to buy tobacco legally in B.C. and five other provinces; it’s 18 in the Prairies, Quebec and the Territories.
Interestingly, those age limits mirror the legal drinking age for alcohol across Canada (except in Saskatchewan, where the legal drinking age is 19).
Callaghan has done similar research on the correlation between legal drinking ages and car accidents among youth.
“Young people just released from legal restrictions on drinking showed a very marked increase in alcohol-impaired driving, in auto collisions, alcohol-related hospital injuries, increases in violent and other crime,” he said. “They also experienced increased victimization and big jumps in mortality, especially young males.
“So we know for sure that in alcohol fields, age limits have an effect.”
Health Canada is considering raising the legal age to buy tobacco products to 21, with the ambitious goal of reducing smoking in Canada to five per cent of the population by 2035.
Right now, roughly one in six people under the age of 25 in Canada are smokers.
Callaghan said the tobacco industry recognizes that the younger the better when it comes to hooking youth on the cancer sticks.
“There are studies linking the vulnerability of adolescents to nicotine addiction,” he said. “The tobacco companies know this, that just a few tries (at smoking) can induce withdrawal. As youth mature, they are much less likely to start smoking.
“The tobacco companies’ own literature acknowledges that if they don’t get young people smoking by 21, they won’t start.”
It seems almost as crazy as believing the Earth is the centre of the universe that smoking was so prevalent at one time: On airplanes, in restaurants, actor physicians in white coats promoting the killer weed’s calming benefits, even children’s cartoon characters pitching cigarettes.
“It’s amazing how far we’ve come and a lot of that is the result of research affecting policy,” Callaghan said.
He expects to publish his results this fall.