Hawaii is now the first state in the nation with 21 as the legal age to use tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes. Gov. David Ige signed it into law June 19, 2015, reports AP. The same day, a separate bill was signed into law making all public parks and beaches across the state no-smoke zones.
The bill is effective July 1, and “prohibits the sale, purchase, possession or consumption of cigarettes, other tobacco products and electronic smoking devices to anyone under the age of 21,” reports the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
“The whole purpose of the measure is to just delay the initiation into tobacco when young people might make better decisions at 21,” said Cory Chun, government relations manager for the American Cancer Society.
The U.S. Surgeon General reports 95 percent of all smokers started before the age of 21.“I’m not sure if I agree or disagree with raising the age,” said Alex Chowen, a recent graduate in accounting from Laie. “People start smoking illegally anyway in high school, and I think it’s just giving people more opportunity to break the law. It’s not going to stop anyone from smoking.”
Independent of the effectiveness of the measure, it is an example of injustice towards service men and women, according to Democratic Rep. Angus McKelvey, who voted against the bill. “I can’t stand cigarette smoking. It’s disgusting,” he said. “But to tell somebody you can go and fight for your country and get killed but you can’t have a cigarette, that’s the thing.”
The penalty for breaking the law will be a $10 fine for the first offense, and a $50 fine or community service for offenses thereafter, reports AP.
Murphy Soli, a BYUH employee from Samoa and Laie, said, “I think it’s good, but kind of too late, yeah?” meaning the kids already get their cigarettes illegally if they really want to smoke.
A separate bill signed the same day prohibits tobacco use on public beaches and parks. Concerning this bill, Soli said, “That’s great. It’s an open area,” and when someone smokes in an open area, the second-hand smoke is too intense for non-smokers.
“We have, for many decades now, been aware of the bad outcomes for second-hand smoke,” said Ige.
In addition to limiting second-hand smoke, the bill helps with cleanliness of public spaces. Ige said, “When you talk to people who are users of the park and people who are responsible for keeping our parks clean, cigarette smoking and cigarette butts are a huge, huge challenge.”
The two bills together “allow us to put one more impediment to people smoking too much,” said Ige.
The inclusion of electronic cigarettes in the ban may leave some people puzzled, as e-cigs are marketed as a tobacco-free product. However, they contain nicotine among other harmful substances that make their second-hand “smoke” damaging.
A study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health exposed a control group of mice to air and a test group to e-cig vapor. The test group had compromised immune systems.
“E-cigarette vapor alone produced mild effects on the lungs, including inflammation and protein damage,” said Dr. Thomas Sussan, lead author of the study. “However, when this exposure was followed by a bacterial or viral infection … the e-cigarette exposure inhibited the ability of mice to clear the bacteria from their lungs, and the viral infection led to increased weight loss and death indicative of an impaired immune response.”