Smoking Age Increase Proposed

A California lawmaker is hoping to make some important changes affecting the state´s youngest smokers. State Assemblyman Paul Koretz says he will introduce a bill that will raise the state´s smoking age from 18 to 21. That would be the highest in the nation. All fifty states have set a minimum smoking age of at least 18, while three states have set the legal age at 19. But Koretz says he want the minimum age in California to be 21, with the hopes of cutting smoking rates among teens. The American Lung Association estimates about 90 percent of all smokers begin smoking before the age of 21.