County considers raising age limit to buy tobacco

March 02-- Mar. 2--Months of study has led Olmsted County Public Health to push for raising the minimum age for buying tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.

"The research actually started before I got here in June," said Graham Briggs, director of Olmsted County Public Health Services. "This has been going on for over a year in the health department, looking at what is a nationwide movement for changing the age from 18 to 21."

The findings will be highlighted on April 2, as Olmsted County commissioners hold a public hearing on the proposal to raise the minimum age for tobacco purchases to 21 countywide.

Briggs said a recent series of discussions with school officials and parents revealed the extent of tobacco use among area youth.

"We were surprised by the amount of activity that school officials were telling us that was going on," he said, specifically pointing to the use of e-cigarettes and other devices used for delivering nicotine through vapor, also known as "vaping."

The stories Public Health staff heard included students being taken to the hospital due to exposure to high levels of nicotine and students caught vaping in class using hidden devices.

"What we found was a really high and increasing level of use in our high-school population," he said.

Briggs said the findings raised alarms, since studies show teens are especially susceptible to nicotine addiction and nicotine is harmful to the developing brain.

Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports nearly 90 percent of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18, which is a message that has been spread locally.

"It's rare for people to start smoking after age 21," Dr. Taylor Hays, medical director of Mayo Clinic's Nicotine Dependence Center, said in an interview last year. "If you avoid tobacco use up to age 21, the vast majority of those people will never smoke."

Briggs said it all points to the need to raise the age limit for buying tobacco products.

If the proposal is passed, Olmsted County would join several Minnesota communities to take the step under the "Tobacco 21" umbrella.

The closest communities are Waseca and North Mankato, but similar ordinances have been adopted in Edina, St. Louis Park, Bloomington, Plymouth, Shoreview, Falcon Heights, Minneapolis, St. Peter, Richfield, Roseville, Minnetonka, Excelsior, Lauderdale, Hermantown, Brooklyn Center, Otter Tail County, Mendota Heights, Eden Prairie, and Pope County.

The effort is supported by the U.S. Surgeon General, who recently declared youth e-cigarette use an epidemic, due in part to the unprecedented climb in vaping among youth.

Nationwide, the use of e-cigarettes and similar devices has increased among middle school students by 48 percent, and by 78 percent among high school students, according to the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the CDC.

Briggs said hearing local reports of increased use drives those numbers home, especially in knowing how damaging tobacco use can be.

"In Olmsted County, tobacco kills over 150 residents and costs the county more than $85 million every year," he said.

The health department is pushing the measure as the Minnesota Legislature considers similar bills.

Bills written by State Sen. Carla Nelson, a Rochester Republican, and their House companions include raising the statewide minimum age for purchasing tobacco to 21.

While the proposed legislation is advancing through committees, Olmsted County commissioners could make a decision before the state takes action, since the Legislature is scheduled to be in session through May 22, seven weeks after the county's planned public hearing.

___

(c)2019 the Post-Bulletin

Visit the Post-Bulletin at www.postbulletin.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.