The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday issued a final rule that raises the minimum age for certain restrictions on tobacco product sales.
Beginning Sept. 30, retailers must verify with photo identification the age of anyone under the age of 30 who is trying to purchase tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. Previously, this requirement applied to anyone under the age of 27. The federal minimum age for sale of tobacco products in the United States is 21.
Once implemented, the requirements are expected to help decrease underage tobacco sales, the agency said.
“Today’s rule is another key step toward protecting our nation’s youth from the health risks of tobacco products,” Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “Decades of science have shown that keeping tobacco products away from youth is critical to reducing the number of people who ultimately become addicted to these products and suffer from tobacco-related disease and death.”
The agency also said that retailers may not sell tobacco products via vending machine in facilities where individuals under 21 are present or permitted to enter at any time. This prohibition previously applied to facilities where individuals under 18 were present or permitted to enter at any time.
The FDA said that “these, and the other changes made by the final rule, aim to maximize the public health impact of the original December 2019 legislation.”
The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, signed into law on Dec. 20, 2019, increased the federal minimum age for the sale of tobacco products from 18 to 21 across the United States. The 2019 legislation amends the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which gives the FDA the authority to regulate all tobacco products, including cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, cigars and hookah tobacco.
The FDA said it is “important” for retailers to request and examine photo IDs to verify age from anyone under 30, regardless of appearance, as research has shown that it is “difficult” for retailers to accurately determine the age of a customer from appearance alone.
To date, the agency has conducted more than 1.5 million compliance checks of tobacco retailers to ensure compliance with federal age restrictions. These inspections have resulted in 134,000 warning letters, more than 33,000 civil money penalties and 230 no-tobacco-sale orders for violations related to federal age restrictions, the agency said.
Looking to provide retailers with resources to improve compliance with tobacco laws and regulations, including age of sale restrictions, the FDA said it has developed This is Our Watch, a voluntary education program that offers free resources to assist retailers in calculating the age of customers, including a digital age verification calendar and an age calculator app.
In March, the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products launched its Searchable Tobacco Products Database, which can also be used by convenience stores and other retailers to “help facilitate compliance with the law,” said King.
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