UPDATED: Dec. 5 at 10:38 p.m.

The Onondaga County Legislature voted Tuesday to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, from 19 to 21.

The bill passed 11-5 with one legislator absent. The bill prohibits the sale of tobacco products, herbal cigarettes, rolling paper and e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 21.

An exception for 18-year-old active duty military members in the current law is not included in the new bill, which is sometimes called Tobacco 21 or T21.

“One of the ways we can best contribute to improving our community’s health is to change law,” said Franklin Fry, executive director of the American Heart Association in the greater Syracuse area. “We have seen that T21 has proven to be successful. We have the Institute of Medicine report as evidence behind that.”

That 2015 report concluded that the impact of raising the minimum age of legal access to 21 will “likely be substantially higher” than raising it from 18 to 19, which Onondaga County did in 2009.

Anna Henderson | Digital Design Editor

Leslie Kohman, a surgeon at the State University of New York Upstate Medical Hospital, also spoke before the Legislature on Tuesday.

“T21 is a vital step that Onondaga County can take to protect our future productive citizens from the scourge of tobacco-related disease, disability and death,” Kohman said.

Another family physician with military experience spoke in support of the bill during the session. Along with Kohman and Fry, two health professionals from St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center and a representative from the Tobacco Free Network also stepped forward as proponents of the bill.

David Barry, though, opposed language in the bill that will also prohibit vaping. Barry is the central New York director of the state Vapor Association and operations manager of Unique eCigs, Inc. — which has multiple locations across New York.

“There is no evidence to suggest that vaping leads to smoking,” Barry said, later claiming that restricting access to vaping products increases smoking rates rather than decreasing them.

“It will create a black market in Onondaga County, as the underage will still find a way. They will seek other sources, such as family friends, or travel out of county to acquire them,” Barry said.

The tobacco bill was sponsored by legislators Danny Liedka, Christopher Ryan, Patrick Kilmartin, Peggy Chase and John Dougherty.

Liedka, of the 7th District, said during discussion of the bill that his mother and father both died from complications related to smoking, and that his siblings suffered from massive strokes also from smoking.

“She started at 15. She died at 56 years old,” Liedka said of his mother. He said his father died at 65.

Kevin Holmquist, of the 10th District, was one of the five legislators who voted against the bill.

“It concerns me that government is taking away rights one at a time,” Holmquist said during discussion. “Five years from now, ten years from now … what’re we going to be taking away then?”

County Executive Joanie Mahoney will have to sign the bill before it becomes law.

Published on December 5, 2017 at 9:55 pm

Contact Mary: mdcatalf@syr.edu | @mrycatalfamo