Fired up over raising age to buy tobacco
Three cheers for this move by the General Assembly.
Frankly, the legislation moved so quickly that we’re curious why it didn’t happen years ago. Pennsylvania will become the 19th state with 21 as the minimum age for the purchase of tobacco products.
Why now?
Perhaps it was last year’s report from the federal government that
3.6 million U.S. teens are using e-cigarettes – that’s 1 in 5 high school students and 1 in 20 middle-schoolers.
Perhaps it aligns with the strong and admirable campaign launched in June by the Pennsylvania Department of Health to keep children from vaping.
Perhaps it’s a response to the terrifying outbreak of lung disease this summer and fall among vapers. About 2,100 people have gotten sick and 42 have died, according to the latest figures. Or perhaps it’s all of the above. Whatever road got us to this point, we’re grateful that it did.
The General Assembly even managed to pass the legislation on the same date as the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout.
“Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causes many diseases and reduces the health of smokers in general,” state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said in a news release. “More than
16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking.”
Additionally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cigarette smoking accounts for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the U.S. And that includes more than 41,000 deaths from secondhand smoke exposure.
Raising the legal age to purchase tobacco products to 21 is sure to keep more Pennsylvanians from becoming addicted. Data from the American Lung Association shows that 9 out of 10 adult smokers started by age 18.
Republican state Sen. Mario Scavello of Monroe County, one of the legislation’s sponsors, cited the health care and lost productivity costs of smoking. And, like us, he’s greatly concerned about our young people.
“As the availability and appeal of e-cigarettes has increased in particular, the rates of high-school age children vaping has increased
40 percent in just one year,” Scavello said in a news release. “Twenty-four percent of Pennsylvania high school teens use e-cigarettes, driving up overall youth smoking rates to over 32 percent. It’s clear that we have to act.”
More than two-thirds of Pennsylvanians surveyed favor raising the legal age for tobacco sales to
21, according to Scavello. So this is a popular move.
Nationally, about 50% of the U.S. population lives in a state or community in which you must be 21 to buy tobacco, according to the American Lung Association. We’re heartened to see Pennsylvania help raise that percentage further.
The cascading effect of raising the legal age may help stamp out tobacco use by future generations, experts say.
“Not only do these laws seem to work, but they’re influencing the kids most at risk,” Abigail Friedman, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health, said. “The laws are not just reducing the behavior of individuals, but they are reducing the behavior of friends, and that creates a feedback loop, because what your friends do affects you, especially as a young adult.”
That’s good news, and a good example of the positive role state government can play in bettering the health of its citizens.
Meanwhile, for those who also use tobacco products and want to quit, there is help available. According to Levine, Pennsylvanians can call the PA Free Quitline 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They will be connected to services and resources to help with tobacco cessation. State residents can call 800-QUIT-NOW
(800-784-8669), or 855-DEJELOYA (855-335-3569) for Spanish. As the Great American Smokeout stresses to those who wish to quit, “You don’t have to stop smoking in one day. Start with day one.”
- LNP, Lancaster Newspapers
Total lack of accountability in state raises
This is the time of year when private businesses typically conduct evaluations of their staffs and executives, partly to set compensation rates for the coming year.
No such process takes place at the Pennsylvania Capitol, however, because legislators have ensured their own raises, and those for judges and the governor and some other executive branch officials, as a matter of law.
Technically, the mandatory annual increase is a cost-of-living adjustment rather than a pay raise, which would require a specific vote. So, by that law tying their compensation to an inflation index rather than performance, lawmakers will receive a
1.9% raise Dec. 1, driving the base compensation for a legislator past
$90,000 a year. That does not include unaccountable per diem expense payments and CEO-level compensation packages including golden parachute pensions and health benefits. Pay for legislative leaders will rise as high as $141,000.
Pennsylvania lawmakers, who recently took up a bill to increase the state minimum wage to just
$9.50 an hour by July 2021, are the third-highest paid in the nation behind those in California and New York. But collectively they are just as expensive because there are 253 of them. California has 120 legislators; New York has 213.
Judges and executive branch officials will receive 1.9% raises beginning Jan. 1. The governor’s salary will increase by about $3,800 to more than $200,000 (current Gov. Tom Wolf donates his salary to charity), and Chief Justice Tom Saylor’s pay will increase by
$4,000 to more than $221,000. By giving themselves and top government officers automatic pay raises, legislators have lifted from themselves the burden of introducing compensation bills and making the case to the public as to why they deserve more pay.
Some legislators claim that their reelections are validation of the current system, but given that they also are the beneficiaries of self-selecting gerrymandering, that argument fails.
There are means other than the COLA end run to deal with officials’ compensation. Some states have independent commissions that set or recommend salaries, for example.
But this is Pennsylvania, where an automatic COLA is easier than accountability, and where no need to debate spares the Legislature at least one of its mere 90 session days each year.