 Minimum ages of legal access for tobacco in the United States from 1863 to 2015D.E. Apollonio and S.A. Glantz American Journal of Public Health, 2016, vol. 106, issue 7, 1200-1207 Abstract: In the United States, state laws establish a minimum age of legal access (MLA) for most tobacco products at 18 years.We reviewed the history of these laws with internal tobacco industry documents and newspaper archives from 1860 to 2014. The laws appeared in the 1880s; by 1920, half of states had set MLAs of at least 21 years. After 1920, tobacco industry lobbying eroded them to between 16 and 18 years. By the 1980s, the tobacco industry viewed restoration of higher MLAs as a critical business threat. The industry's political advocacy reflects its assessment that recruiting youth smokers is critical to its survival. The increasing evidence on tobacco addiction suggests that restoring MLAs to 21 years would reduce smoking initiation and prevalence, particularly among those younger than 18 years. Keywords: adolescent; attitude to health; history; human; legislation and jurisprudence; smoking; tobacco industry; Tobacco Use Disorder; United States, Adolescent; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; Humans; Smoking; Tobacco Industry; Tobacco Use Disorder; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2016.303172_8 Access Statistics for this article American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.