KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 – United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak yesterday announced a bold plan to ban the sale of cigarettes for the next generation.
Daily Mail reported that the proposed law would raise the legal age for buying tobacco products, from the current age of 18, by one additional year every year.
This means that everyone born from 2009 in England will not be able to legally purchase cigarettes in their lifetime, the same cohort in the generational tobacco ban implemented by New Zealand last year.
In Malaysia, a similar generational end game (GEG) ban – which is expected to be presented to Parliament next Monday under the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023 – proposes an earlier start of the prohibition on cigarettes, and tobacco and vape products by targeting those born from 2007.
“In the UK, smoking causes 1 in 4 cancer deaths. So I’m proposing changing the law so children turning 14 or younger this year can never legally be sold cigarettes in their lifetime. A smoke-free generation,” Sunak posted on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) yesterday.
According to the UK prime minister, smoking causes 64,000 annual deaths in England and places a huge burden on the National Health Service (NHS), costing the country £17 billion (RM98 billion) a year – £2.4 billion (RM13.8 billion) to the NHS alone.
“We know more than four in five smokers start before the age of 20. We need to stop the start.”
At the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Sunak reportedly said the vote to progressively raise the legal age for buying cigarettes would be a free one in the UK Parliament, making it a “matter of conscience” for MPs.
“We will not criminalise smoking – nor will anyone who can legally be sold cigarettes today be prevented from doing so in the future. But we have a chance to cut cancer deaths by a quarter and significantly ease huge pressures on the NHS. We should take it,” Sunak tweeted.
He also pledged to restrict the availability of vapes to children by looking at flavours, packaging, point-of-sale displays, as well as disposable e-cigarettes.
“As any parent or teacher knows, one of the most worrying trends right now is the rise in vaping amongst children – one in five children have used vapes,” the prime minister was quoted saying.
“We must act before it becomes endemic.”
