Skip to main content

FDA Mandates ID Checks for Everyone Younger Than 30 Buying Cigarettes

By Physician’s Briefing Staff HealthDay Reporter

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Sep 1, 2024.

via HealthDay

FRIDAY, Aug. 30, 2024 -- Retailers will now be required to check the IDs of anyone buying cigarettes who is younger than 30 years of age, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday. The final rule, which will go into effect Sept. 30, also restricts tobacco vending machine sales to spaces that are limited to people aged 21 years and older.

"Today's rule is another key step towards protecting our nation's youth from the health risks of tobacco products," Brian King, M.D., head of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, said in an agency news release on the rule. "Decades of science has 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."

Importantly, the new restrictions also apply to electronic cigarettes, which are popular among young smokers. Although the number of children using e-cigarettes has started to decline over the past five years, one out of 10 high schoolers still say they vaped in the previous 30 days. For middle schoolers, that number was one in 22, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The federal age limit for tobacco purchases was 18 years until 2019, when it was raised to 21 years. Prior to the new rule, tobacco retailers were required to ask all buyers younger than 27 years for ID.

The FDA will continue to check that retailers are not selling tobacco products to underage users. So far, the agency has performed 1.5 million checks, and these have prompted 130,000 warning letters, at least 33,000 financial penalties and more than 200 "no tobacco sale" orders for stores that have violated age restrictions.

More Information

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Read this next

Vaporized Nicotine Products More Effective Than Nicotine Replacement Therapy

THURSDAY, July 17, 2025 -- In a socially disadvantaged population, vaporized nicotine products (VNPs) are more effective than nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for smoking...

Adolescent Vaping of THC, Cannabidiol, Synthetic Cannabinoids Increasing

WEDNESDAY, July 9, 2025 -- Adolescent vaping of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol, and synthetic cannabinoids increased significantly from 2021 to 2023, according to a...

Artificial Sweetener Neotame Found in Most E-Cigarettes

MONDAY, June 9, 2025 -- The artificial sweetener neotame is ubiquitous in popular disposable e-cigarettes, according to a research letter published online June 2 in...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.