By RFD Radio/WFMB

SPRINGFIELD – On the 10-year anniversary of passing a bill to prohibit smoking in restaurants, office buildings and other places some state lawmakers want to raise the minimum age to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products to 21.

Democratic Senator John Mulroe of Chicago said the idea is to reduce the number of young people who start smoking.

“There’s evidence that if we can push the age from 18 to 21, the likelihood of a kid that waits until 21, it’s slim to none or every slim that they will even start smoking,” Mulroe said.

The American Lung Association’s Kathy Drea said retailers will lose out on some business but it’s a sale worth not making.

“The retailers are concerned about possibly about losing two percent of their sales from cigarettes, but the thing we keep reminding people is this isn’t just any product,” Drea said. “This product kills people.”

You can now buy and possess tobacco when you’re 18 in Illinois. Chicago already has a local ordinance that establishes 21 as the smoking age.