{"id":77422,"date":"2017-02-02T01:04:33","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T06:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=77422"},"modified":"2017-01-31T20:14:58","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T01:14:58","slug":"public-health-groups-call-on-governor-legislature-to-raise-tobacco-sale-age-to-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=77422","title":{"rendered":"Public health groups call on governor, Legislature to raise tobacco sale age to 21"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"american<\/a>Lung Association\u2019s \u201cState of Tobacco Control\u201d Report 2017 reveals New York\u2019s tobacco policy leaves youth lives at risk<\/em><\/p>\n

In response to the American Lung Association\u2019s recent \u201cState of\u00a0Tobacco Control\u201d Report 2017, the American Lung Association, American Heart Association, and\u00a0the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network today gathered with state Sen.\u00a0Diane Savino (D-Staten Island), and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan), at the State\u00a0Capitol to call on the state to immediately pass \u201cTobacco 21\u201d legislation, raising the age of sale of\u00a0tobacco products to 21. Both Savino and Rosenthal have introduced legislation to the Senate\u00a0(S3978) and Assembly (A273).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key to reducing the number of citizens who smoke is to prevent initiation of tobacco use in the first place,\u201d said Senator Diane Savino. \u201cDelaying children and young adults access to tobacco\u00a0products will reduce the likelihood that they ever start smoking. Raising the smoking age 21 will largely remove cigarettes from high schools and will help eliminate a popular source of\u00a0tobacco for children and young adults. This legislation will help prevent a generation of New\u00a0Yorkers from becoming addicted to smoking, and we can ultimately save thousands of lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year tobacco ensnares tens of thousands of young New Yorkers in its death grip,\u201d said Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal. \u201cThe statistics that surround youth tobacco use though, are not our fate. I am proud to have reintroduced legislation to increase the purchasing age for tobacco\u00a0products across New York State from 18 to 21. With incredible partners like the American Lung\u00a0Association, the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association, we have a real chance to protect generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the U.S., and increasing the\u00a0sales age for tobacco products could have a big impact on youth tobacco use in New York State.<\/p>\n

According to a 2015 report from the National Academy of Medicine, raising the tobacco age to 21 nationwide would prevent 223,000 deaths among people born between 2000 and 2019, including\u00a050,000 fewer dying from lung cancer, the nation\u2019s leading cancer killer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 1 in 4 high school students in the state of New York currently use tobacco products,\u201d\u00a0said Jeff Seyler, President and CEO of the American Lung Association of the Northeast. \u201cThis\u00a0year\u2019s State of Tobacco Control Report card gave New York State a \u201cD\u201d due to its failure to pass a\u00a0statewide Tobacco 21 law. We know that increasing the minimum age of sale for tobacco products\u00a0to 21 will not only give New York an A grade in this category, but more importantly it will\u00a0significantly reduce youth tobacco use, long term addiction, and save thousands of lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every day, nationally, about 2,500 youth under 18 try their first cigarette and 400 kids become\u00a0regular daily smokers. Two-thirds of 10th-grade students and nearly half of eighth-grade students say it\u00a0is easy to get cigarettes. According to a National Academy of Medicine report, smokers age 18-19\u00a0years old are a major supplier for younger kids who rely on friends, classmates and peers to buy\u00a0tobacco products. A comprehensive statewide law raising the age of sale would help reduce the\u00a0number of high school students who have easy access to tobacco products because they would be\u00a0less likely to have legal buyers ages 21 and older in their social networks.<\/p>\n

Julie Hart, director of New York government relations of ACS CAN said, \u201cGiven that about 95\u00a0percent of smokers started before the age of 21, it is imperative to take action to help our young New\u00a0Yorkers. Tobacco 21 is a promising strategy and could stop kids before they begin a deadly tobacco\u00a0addiction, thereby saving lives and health care costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSmoking is a leading cause of heart disease, the No. 1 killer of all Americans,\u201d said Dr. Suzie Mookherjee, cardiologist and member of the Founders Affiliate Board of Directors for the\u00a0American Heart Association. \u201cIf a person doesn\u2019t start smoking before they are 21, the chance that\u00a0they will ever start decreases dramatically. This is a deadly habit that costs New Yorkers $16 billion\u00a0per year. I urge the state Legislature to protect our youth by passing Tobacco 21 across the state. It is\u00a0up to us to save young lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIncreasing the tobacco age to 21 will prevent young people from using tobacco, save lives and help\u00a0make the next generation tobacco-free,\u201d said Kevin O\u2019Flaherty, Northeast Regional Director for\u00a0the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. \u201cThis proposal will reduce tobacco use among youth and\u00a0young adults \u2013 age groups when nearly all tobacco use begins and that are heavily targeted by the\u00a0tobacco industry. It will also help keep tobacco out of high schools, where younger teens often obtain tobacco products from older students.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day as you leave Burnt Hills High School, will see a group of kids across the road in the church parking lot smoking,\u201d said Conner McClernan, senior at Burnt Hills High School and\u00a0member of Reality Check, a youth-led movement that helps fight back against tobacco. \u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0no longer talking about just numbers on a piece of paper or spreadsheet. It is the kids you\u2019ve had\u00a0pictures of on your mantles since the day they were born.\u201d<\/p>\n

While several localities in New York acted to pass local legislation raising the age of sale to 21 in\u00a02016, New York State earned a nearly failing grade of \u201cD\u201d in the Tobacco 21 category of the report\u00a0for failing to pass comprehensive statewide legislation to keep tobacco out of the hands of young\u00a0adults. This year\u2019s State of Tobacco Control Report revealed that 28.8% of high school students in\u00a0the state use at least one tobacco product.\u00a0 The report also concluded that over $10 billion was spent on healthcare costs due to smoking in New York and 28,170 New Yorkers lost their lives to\u00a0tobacco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lung Association\u2019s \u201cState of Tobacco Control\u201d Report 2017 reveals New York\u2019s tobacco policy leaves youth lives at risk In response to the American Lung Association\u2019s recent \u201cState of\u00a0Tobacco Control\u201d Report 2017, the American Lung Association, American Heart Association, and\u00a0the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network today gathered with state Sen.\u00a0Diane Savino (D-Staten Island), and Assemblymember […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23810,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellbeing","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-k8K","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/american-heart.jpg?fit=219%2C144&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}