U.S. senators have just introduced legislation that would prohibit the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21.

A summary for “The Tobacco to 21 Act,” says that three-quarters of U.S. citizens favor raising the legal tobacco buying age to 21 years. The current age is 18.

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who along with nine other senators sponsored the bill, said, “We know that the earlier smokers begin their unhealthy addiction to nicotine, the more likely they are to suffer from tobacco-related diseases or die.”

A number of states and counties have already pushed the smoking age to 21.

Schatz’s senate page informs that, “This year, Hawai‘i became the first state in the nation to raise the minimum smoking age to 21. It was an historic public health achievement that we should adopt nationwide. By raising the minimum tobacco age of sale to 21 across the country, we can cut the number of new smokers each year; build a healthier, tobacco free America; and save lives.”

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the tobacco restrictions are life-saving measures, adding, “Thanks to tobacco control measures like banning smoking in public places and placing warning labels on cigarette cartons, far fewer people smoke now than did fifty years ago.”

“As a result, far fewer families have lost loved ones to tobacco-related disease and death,” said Durbin, who maintains that as a nation we still have a long way to go. “We can help prevent a new generation from falling prey to this deadly epidemic by passing another commonsense measure to reduce youth tobacco use: raising the minimum tobacco age of sale to 21."

As reported in U.S. News, Gregory Conley, the president of the American Vaping Association trade group, fears that the bill’s age limit would apply to nicotine-laced liquid used by e-cigarettes, and says, “All efforts to target 18- to 20-year-old adults with new prohibitions should exclusively focus on the products that are actually killing people: cigarettes.”