United Kingdom: four questions on the plan to ban the sale of cigarettes to generations born from 2009
Will the UK become a smoke-free country? This is in any case the long-term ambition of the British government, which is defending a bill aimed at banning the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after January 1, 2009, including after reaching the age of majority. The elected representatives of the House of Commons voted in favor of the text on Tuesday April 16. In the event of final adoption of the text, which could take place in June depending on the Guardian, these teenagers now aged 14 or 15 would thus become the first “tobacco-free generation” in the United Kingdom, where cigarettes are the leading cause of avoidable mortality according to the government. Franceinfo returns, in four questions, to the issues surrounding this much-noticed text.
To combat smoking, the government led by conservative Rishi Sunak has decided to tackle the sale of cigarettes. The bill passed on Tuesday, which may still be amended as it passes through the British Parliament, plans to make any sale of cigarettes illegal to people born after January 1, 2009. The sale of tobacco is currently prohibited to those under 18 years of age. in the United Kingdom – this minimum age will therefore, mathematically, gradually increase from 2027, when young people from the first “tobacco-free generation” will reach the age of majority.
The text, which will apply in England and Wales, provides for a fine of 100 pounds sterling (117 euros) for stores which do not respect the ban. This sum is in addition to the fines of 2,500 pounds (2,920 euros) that the courts can already impose in the event of the sale of tobacco to minors, specifies the British executive in a press release.
But the fight against smoking is no longer limited to cigarettes. This is why the bill also places restrictions on the flavors of electronic cigarettes, popular in playgrounds. By 2023, one in five children aged 11-17 had already vaped in the UK, according to a YouGov survey for the anti-smoking organization ASH. The text intends to extend the ban on sales to minors to products without nicotine, and to regulate the way in which products are sold and packaged, in order to make them less attractive.
“It is our responsibility, our duty, to protect the next generation”, justified the Minister of Health, Victoria Atkins, at the opening of the debates in Westminster on Tuesday. Because in total, 6.4 million Britons aged over 18 will still smoke cigarettes in 2023, or around 12.9% of the population, according to ASH. Even if the number of smokers is half as high as in France, tobacco is the leading cause of avoidable mortality in the United Kingdom, responsible for 80,000 deaths per year according to the government. Creating a “smoking-free generation” could prevent more than 470,000 cases of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and other conditions by the end of the century, argues the British executive.
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