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TOBACCO BILL: Language added on health study
Thursday April 03, 2008
Language added on health study
By M.E. Sprengelmeyer
A Denver congresswoman has persuaded her colleagues to keep the door open to possible future hikes in the legal tobacco-purchase age.
Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, is not proposing to increase the minimum smoking age, currently 18.
But she persuaded colleagues on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to add language to a tobacco-regulation bill that would require a study about the public health ramifications, particularly for young people who begin smoking in high school.
DeGette calls cigarettes “one of the deadliest products sold legally” and cited a tobacco lobbyist’s memo from 1986 talking about the business reasons why the industry does not want to see the legal purchase age increased to 21.