Today's Edition
LONDON (REUTERS)
Britain's plans to ban future generations from buying cigarettes will become law this week, ushering in a policy still overshadowed by questions over how effective it will be in stopping smoking.
Lawmakers last week approved the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which introduces a rolling age restriction permanently barring anyone born on or after January 1, 2009 from buying cigarettes.
Due to receive royal assent - the final stage of the legislative process - this week, the laws also tighten rules on vaping and other nicotine products, particularly around marketing and display.
GRADUAL CHANGE, DIVIDED VIEWS
In London, people were split on whether it would work.
"I think it's important to ban it for teenagers and young kids," 21-year-old student Minola Slaveschi said on Monday. "There's just way too many at the moment vaping and smoking on the streets."
The bill raises the legal age for buying tobacco by one year, every year, starting with people born in and after 2009, meaning affected age groups face a lifetime ban.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), the public health charity that has long pushed for tougher tobacco controls, estimates smoking among 16- and 17-year-olds is already low and says that will make the policy easier to phase in.
"The genius of this policy is that it starts small, but gains impact over time," Hazel Cheeseman, ASH's chief executive, said. It could prevent a "large amount of death" over decades, she added.
Government modelling suggests smoking rates among the affected age groups would eventually fall close to zero, easing pressure on Britain's health system and pushing smoking into older generations.
The tobacco ban does not cover vapes, but the law gives ministers wide powers to regulate flavours, packaging, product names and point-of-sale displays, measures the government says are intended to deter under-18s and non-smokers.
Cheeseman said those controls were central to making the generational ban work.
