Utah and Colorado lawmakers both voted to change the legal smoking age from 18 to 21 on Thursday in a move they hope will help treat tobacco like alcohol and take it away from 18- to 20-year-olds, the Associated Press reported
The move is inspired by new research on how many smokers start the habit as teenagers, the AP reported. A paper published last year in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine said that 9 out of 10 daily smokers in the U.S. have their first cigarette by 18 years of age.
The study also states that about 90 percent of cigarettes purchased for minors are obtained by people between 18 and 20 years old, so raising the age to 21 will reduce the amount of cigarettes available to teenagers, according to the AP.
"By raising the age limit, it puts them in a situation where they're not going to pick it up until a much later age," Marla Brannum of Lehi, Utah, who testified in favor of the idea, said, the AP reported.
"What I'm hoping to do is make it harder for kids to obtain cigarettes," Utah Representative Cheri Gerou who sponsored the measure said, according to the AP.
Utah smoking rate is the lowest in the nation at about 12 percent in 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the AP reported. Colorado isn't far behind, at about 18 percent in 2011.
In both states, the proposals face several more votes, but the proposals are the furthest any states have gone to curb access to cigarettes by teens, according to the AP.
Armando Peruga, program manager of the World Health Organization's Tobacco Free Initiative, said he supported the U.S. proposal as long as it would be strictly enforced and is accompanied by other tobacco control measures, such as high taxes and smoke-free regulations, the AP reported.
"It needs to be part of a comprehensive policy to counter the tobacco industry's influence on young people," Peruga said, according to the AP.
In Alabama, Alaska and New Jersey and Utah, the legal smoking age has already been raised to 19-years-old, the AP reported.
Other 21-for-tobacco bills are also pending in state legislatures in Hawaii, Massachusetts and New Jersey, according to the AP. Maryland lawmakers considered and rejected the idea this year, but New York City raised the tobacco age to 21 last year, as did Hawaii County, Hawaii.
