Higher age limit urged for cigarette purchase

After pushing for the passage of a law requiring graphic health warnings to be placed on cigarette packs, anti-smoking advocates are now calling for a higher minimum age for buyers of cigarettes.

Emer Rojas, New Vois Association of the Philippines ( NVAP) president, said the group is seeking the passage of a measure that will raise to 21

years the minimum legal age for buying cigarettes from the current 18.

“Increasing the age of those given access to purchase cigarettes will certainly be a good measure to further reduce the smoking prevalence, especially among the youth,” he said.

He cited a study of the United States’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) showing that raising the minimum age to buy cigarettes to 21 years will have a substantial positive impact on public health and save lives. The study has projected a 12 percent reduction in smoking rate and 10 percent drop in smokingrelated deaths if a measure raising the minimum legal age is enforced.

Based on the study, such a measure would translate into 249,000 fewer premature deaths, 45,000 fewer deaths from lung cancer, and 4.2 million fewer years of life lost in the US alone.

Countries that have raised the minimum legal age for buying cigarettes to 21 years include Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Honduras, Cook Islands, as well as the states of New York, Illinois, Missouri, Massachusetts, and Hawaii in the US.

But in the Philippines, minimum legal age is limited to the use of the word “minors,” which means those below 18 years old are prohibited from buying and consuming cigarettes or using any tobacco products, Rojas noted.