People under 21 years old would be prohibited from using or buying tobacco products in Iowa under a bill that won initial approval Wednesday from a group of Iowa lawmakers.

Senate President Charles Schneider, R-West Des Moines, chairman of the three-member subcommittee that advanced the bill, said it's a bipartisan issue.

"Increasing the minimum age from 18 to 21 helps us ensure that no high school-age student can legally purchase tobacco or vape products, bring them back to school, share them or sell them to their friends and classmates," Schneider said.

The 2017 National Youth Tobacco Survey found 11.7 percent of high schoolers and 3.3 percent of middle schoolers use e-cigarettes.

On Sunday, the Illinois governor signed legislation that would raise that state's smoking age to 21. Several states have already passed similar laws.

The subcommittee meeting is the first step of the legislative process. To become law, the measure would have to advance through a full committee and then win a vote in the full Senate before repeating the process in the House. The governor would then have to sign the bill.

Danielle Oswald-Thole, a lobbyist for the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network, said that while the organization supports the goal of reducing teen nicotine use, it opposes the bill because it does not believe it will be effective.

Raising the tobacco-purchasing age to 21 can make sense if coupled with higher taxes and funding for addiction prevention services, which the bill lacks, she said. She said the bill should also treat e-cigarettes the same as other tobacco products and increase penalties for retailers who sell to underage buyers.

"We would ask that electronic cigarettes be defined as tobacco products so that we’re regulating them with the same evidence-based tobacco-control policies that we regulate tobacco products," Oswald-Thole said.

E-cigarettes contain nicotine, but not tobacco, but they are often classified as tobacco products in the United States for regulation purposes.

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, voted to advance the bill, although he said he did not believe it would be effective in its current form. He argued teenagers need more education about the dangers of vapor products.

"I don’t think the bill really does anything frankly to reduce vaping, tobacco use and, most importantly, nicotine addiction," he said.

Schneider said the bill would be amended to include suggestions voiced at the subcommittee.

The legislation has support from JUUL, a national company that sells vaporizers and nicotine products that it markets as an alternative to cigarettes. Critics have accused JUUL of targeting teenagers with its advertising, although it says it has changed its marketing practices. It has pulled back some flavors to curb use among minors while still offering flavors that appeal to adults.

The American Cancer Society and FDA have previously promoted e-cigarettes as a means to quit smoking traditional cigarettes with tobacco.

Several owners of Iowa shops that sell tobacco and vapor products voiced their opposition Wednesday.

Thomas Hudson, the owner of 515 Vape and Disc Golf, which has shops in Clive and Ankeny, said using vapor nicotine products can be a way of quitting smoking and that increasing the legal age to buy such products would eliminate "access to a safer alternative to combustible tobacco products."

Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, said he recognizes that changing the law will not eliminate tobacco use among those under 21, but said it would move the state in the right direction.

"We have a bill here that takes us a step forward, and I think we should take that step," Quirmbach said.

He said he is not convinced by the argument that someone who is old enough to vote is old enough to use tobacco.

"There’s a constitutional right to vote. There’s no constitutional right to smoke or to vape," Quirmbach said.

The bill would take effect Jan. 1, 2020. Anyone who was 18 or older before that date would still be allowed to use tobacco products. It would not apply to veterans or members of the military, although several people argued for eliminating that exemption.

"If we’re going to raise the age to 21 we should do that for everybody. We know what the harms of tobacco is," Oswald-Thole said.

Lawmakers are entering the final few weeks of the legislative session and Schneider said he's not sure whether the bill will reach Gov. Kim Reynolds' desk this year.

"I’m not ruling it out, but we want to make sure that we get the language right, we get the policy right," he said. "So if it takes more than this session I’m willing to wait."

Register reporter Shelby Fleig contributed to this article.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse, the governor's office and politics. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169.