article_snippet: Raising the legal tobacco age to 21 across America would lower the number of premature deaths by almost 250,000, according to new research.
article_snippet: The report, issued by the Institute of Medicine, examined the public health impact of increasing the  age across the US to 19, 21 or 25.
article_snippet: And it concluded that if it were to be raised to 21 now, it would result in about 249,000 fewer premature deaths for people born between 2000 and 2019.
article_snippet: Raising legal tobacco age could lower the number of premature deaths in America by almost 250,000 .
article_snippet: It could mean 45,000 fewer deaths from lung cancer and 4.2million fewer years of life lost for the same generation,
article_snippet: Increasing the federal age would take an act of Congress, which mandated the report in a 2009 law that gave the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco.
article_snippet: If the minimum age were to be raised to 19 today, Thursday's report says, there would be about a three percent decrease in smoking prevalence in 2100.
article_snippet: Raising the legal age for buying tobacco to 21 could mean 45,000 fewer deaths from lung cancer and 4.2million fewer years of life lost for the same generation, Thursday's report suggests .
article_snippet: That decrease would rise to 12 percent if That decrease were to be raised to age 21 and 16 percent if That decrease were raised to age 25.
article_snippet: There's a 'growing interest' in raising the minimum age to buy tobacco and knowing what the public health implications would be before tobacco act, said Thursday's report's committee chair, Richard J. Bonnie, a medicine and law professor and director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
article_snippet: the report's committee chair, Richard J. Bonnie, a medicine and law professor and director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville added: 'the report's committee chair, Richard J. Bonnie, a medicine and law professor and director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville have reasonable confidence that there will be substantial public health benefits by raise the age.'
highlights_snippet: Report examined public health impact of increasing age to 19, 21 and 25 .
  
highlights_snippet: Raising the legal age to 21 could result in 249,000 fewer premature deaths .
  