Could Hawaii Become The First State To Raise The Smoking Age To 21?

Just this past Friday, Hawaii lawmakers passed a bill that would essentially raise the legal smoking age to 21 statewide. If approved and signed, this would make the state the first to raise the limit on smoking.

"The activities we've engaged in over the years to manage smoking, our additional efforts in education, the raising of cigarette taxes, this is a continuation of those policies," said bill sponsor, Senator Rosalyn Baker. "To me, giving someone the choice to have lung cancer is not a good choice."

The bill includes the banning of e-cigarette sale and purchase as well for those under the age of 21.

An estimated 16 million Americans in the United States alone are dealing with smoking-related illnesses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with smoking one of the leading causes of preventable deaths and at least 5.6 million Americans under 18 years old expected to die from a smoking-related disease.

At this time, the bill is currently awaiting approval from Hawaii governor, David Ige, who is thought to be reviewing the decision for the issue. His decision will be handled next week.

The legal smoking age is 18 or 19 in most states. However, some are currently pushing to also raise the initial age to 21, including Washington and California.