California lawmaker aims to raise smoking age to 21

A California lawmaker introduced legislation on Thursday that aims to raise the legal smoking age to 21 from 18, his office said in a statement, just over a week after a similar move by Washington state's top lawyer. The bill also comes a day after California's top health official said electronic cigarettes are threatening to unravel the state's decades-long effort to reduce tobacco use. Democratic State Senator Ed Hernandez of West Covina, who chairs the chamber's health committee, brought the bill in hopes of keeping more teens from starting smoking. Some 21,300 children begin smoking in the state every year, Kimberly Amazeen of the American Lung Association in California said in the statement, adding that about 40,000 Californians die every year from the effects of smoking.



via Health News Headlines - Yahoo News http://ift.tt/1tCx9DL