GIRARD — City council on Monday began discussions for a civil, noncriminal way to prevent Girard’s youth from smoking.

The Tobacco 21 program aims to prevent chronic illnesses and premature death by prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to people under the age of 21. Instead of penalizing the individual for smoking underage, this program targets the businesses who might sell to customers who are under 18.

“It is an evidence-based program to prevent the onset of someone starting to smoke. That is a serious problem here in Trumbull County. We have some of the highest smoking rates in the state of Ohio, let alone the country,” said Frank Migliozzi, Trumbull County Health Commissioner. “A lot of them started at an early age.”

According to tobacco21.org, Ohio has an above national average rate of both high school and adult smoking. About 259,000 children under the age of 18 will die prematurely due to smoking, while 6,400 children are becoming new smokers each year, according to the website.

“Everyday in Ohio, about 2,500 kids are going to smoke their first cigarette. One out of three of these new young smokers are going to die early. This is something right here, right now that we can combat. Two percent of tobacco sales are to people under the age of 21, and those young people make up 90 percent of new smokers,” said Dr. Jennifer Manning, Neonatologist for Akron Children’s Hospital at St. Elizabeth in Boardman. “The growing, developing adolescent brain is so much more susceptible to nicotine than the adult brain is. We have to protect them so we can build a stronger and healthier Ohio.”

Council also addressed e-cigarettes, like vaping and Juul pens, and how these items would be regulated under the policy.

According to Jenna Amerine, Trumbull County Health Educator, these items can be placed under the Tobacco 21 policy to control the sales of these products as well. The policy would require all tobacco retailers to pay a fee to get a license, much like that of a liquor license for bars, and there would be inspections. The inspections would enforce the policy, but it would be up to the employers to educate their workers on checking IDs before making a sale.

“It’s not a criminal enforcement — it’s civil enforcement, meaning that police officers are not coming in and busting the minors that are purchasing (tobacco products),” Amerine said.

Girard City Council is meeting later this week to discuss the Tobacco 21 policy and how Girard will implement it.

“In my adult life, we went from smoking everywhere to smoking nowhere. We’ve learned that this is bad for all of us. I think we have an opportunity here to set the stage for our young people knowing that this is going to harm them and we have an opportunity to make their world safer,” Mayor James Melfi said. “I’ve been in support of this from the beginning.”

So far, 21 states have implemented a statewide policy and 11 states, including Ohio, have cities with policies. There are 22 cities within Ohio that have adopted a Tobacco 21 policy and the state of Ohio is working on a statewide policy.

Warren had considered the idea last year, but there was not enough suppprt from council.

bshiller@tribtoday.com