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Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said she would consider increasing the age limit for public health reasons, but she has not discussed the idea with the commission.
“We really need to get young people to stop smoking,” she said. “But tobacco at 21 is something that makes a lot of sense when you look at the cost-benefit analysis for people.”
Within a year, public health plans to ask the Dayton City Commission to raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco by three years, said Bruce Barcelo, healthy lifestyles supervisor with public health, earlier today.
Lifetime smokers on average have their lives cut short by 10 years, and 52 Ohioans die every day from tobacco related diseases, he said.
The region has made some significant strides to deter tobacco use, Barcelo said.
Greater Dayton Premier Management is prohibiting smoking and tobacco use at its properties. Nearly all public schools are 100 percent tobacco free, and Sinclair Community College is now also tobacco free.
Central State University already prohibits smoking on its campus, and Wright State University is going tobacco free on July 1, Barcelo said.
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But Montgomery County is home to more than 500 tobacco retailers, and some businesses fail to comply with or simply ignore state law by selling cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors without checking their IDs, Barcelo said.
Public health recently teamed up with Dayton police officers to perform compliance checks of state tobacco laws at 37 sites, and 21 stores sold cigarettes to underage customers, he said.
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