Evanston moved a step closer to becoming the first Illinois community to raise the age for using tobacco.
To applause from supporters in the audience, members of the City Council’s Human Services Committee voted 4-0 Oct. 6 to recommend an ordinance change that would increase the age of sale, purchase and possession of tobacco or liquid nicotine products from 18 to 21.
The issue will next go the full council. Aldermen are expected to discuss and vote on the proposal on Oct. 13 after the Planning & Development Committee at 7:15 p.m., in council chambers of the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave.
The move to raise the smoking age grew out of the work of the Evanston Health Council, a group of volunteers, some with expertise in the health field, who advise the city on issues resonating in the community, said Evonda Thomas-Smith, the city’s health director who has worked closely with the group.
Thomas-Smith, along with Dr. Donald Ziegler, co-chair of the group and a faculty member in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois-Chicago, as well as Dr. Timothy Sanborn, a leading cardiologist at Evanston Hospital, addressed committee members about the deleterious effects of smoking on health and the need to reach tobacco users when young.
“We know that tobacco use remains the major preventable cause of death in the U.S.,” said Ziegler, addressing committee members, “and that 95 percent of all adult smokers begin and transition to regular smokers before they are 21.”
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