CLEVELAND — it's been three years since the U.S. upped the age to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products to 21. Cleveland did it three years before that, but do those higher age limits cut down on the number of teens smoking?
Case Western Reserve University looked at thousands of high schoolers in Cleveland and surrounding communities both before and after the city increased the age to buy cigarettes.
They found that while cigarette use among teens was going up before the new law, it dropped afterwards. Cigar and e-cigarette use also declined.
"So, when we limit who has access to purchase for them, for those particularly who are younger, then we begin to have a bigger impact that goes beyond that individual level,” said epidemiologist Dr. Erika S. Trapl, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Science, CRWU.
There was also a decrease in the differences in tobacco use among Cleveland teens when looking at race or gender.
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