Youths’ tobacco use

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of 2016, nearly 4 million U.S. middle and high school students used tobacco products, and of those about half used more than one tobacco product. The tobacco industry itself tends to target teens and young adults in order to create lifelong users of their products.

In an effort to reduce teen and young adult usage of tobacco products, five states (California, New Jersey, Oregon, Hawaii and Maine) along with over 300 municipalities in at least 16 states (including Helena-West Helena in Arkansas) have raised the sale age of tobacco to 21.

In July 2015, the CDC released a study that concluded that 75 percent of adults favor raising the tobacco age to 21, including 70 percent of current smokers and 65 percent of those age 1824. A study by the MetroWest Health Foundation found that in the areas of Boston with Tobacco 21 laws, teen usage fell to about half since raising the sales age put legal purchases outside the social circle of most high school students.

A Tobacco 21 policy can save significantly on health-care costs and economic losses. Currently, smoking causes nearly 500,000 premature deaths annually and the direct health-care costs and indirect losses to the American economy from tobacco are estimated at about $330 billion per year.

Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids estimates that each pack of cigarettes consumed costs society $19.16 due to increased health care and indirect work costs in the U.S.

AMANDA EDDY

Springdale