At the board’s Tuesday, October 22 meeting, Cook County commissioners approved a public hearing process to discuss raising the county’s tobacco ordinance from 18 to 21.
If approved, the legal age to purchase tobacco products would rise from 18 to 21.
The recommendation came from the Public Health and Human Services Advisory Committee, who has spent several months studying the issue, looking at what other communities have been doing to cut down on teen tobacco use through vaping.
Vaping is done through the use of e-cigarettes, an electronic cigarette, which is a small, handheld vaporizer that vaporizes nicotine extracted from tobacco, plus flavorings and other chemicals, creating a water vapor inhaled by the participant.
Vaping is a problem in the Cook County High School and Junior High, said assistant principal Mitch Dorr at a recent public forum held on the subject. Dorr said that 18-year-olds were going downtown and purchasing vaping products for underage kids.
According to the U.S. surgeon general, e-cigarettes have become more popular than any traditional tobacco product. By 2015 e-cigarette use had increased 900 percent, and 40 percent of the teens using e-cigarettes said they had never smoked cigarettes.
Efforts to raise the age to purchase tobacco products have been taking place around the country. This past July, the Gallup poll found that 73 percent of Americans favored raising the age to buy tobacco products to age 21. So far, in Minnesota, fifty-three communities have raised the buying age for tobacco products to 21, while nationwide, more than 425 communities in 23 states have adopted the Tobacco 21 policy.
Commissioners set the public hearing for November 26, at 9:30 a.m. in the commissioners room. If you can’t attend the meeting commissioners said they would like to hear from the public via email or by phone. That commissioner information is found on the Cook County website.
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