Ruminations: United Kingdom: Saving Lives, Saving Health Dollars

Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

"[My intention is to] stop teenagers taking up cigarettes n the first place."
"People take up cigarettes when they're young. Four in five smokers have started by the time they're twenty. Later, the vast majority try to quit ... If we could break that cycle, if we could stop the start, then we would be on our way to ending the biggest cause of preventable death and disease in our country."
"No parent ever wants their child to start smoking. It is a deadly habit – killing tens of thousands of people and costing our NHS billions each year, while also being hugely detrimental to our productivity as a country."
"I want to build a better and brighter future for our children, so that’s why I want to stamp out smoking for good. These changes will mean our kids will never be able to buy a cigarette, preventing them getting hooked and protecting their health both now and in the future."
British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak

"This government’s plan to introduce ‘smoke-free generation’ legislation could become its defining legacy, righting a century-old wrong, with tobacco products being the only legally available commodity that, if used as intended, will kill over half of its lifelong users."
Lion Shahab, Academic co-director, tobacco and alcohol research group, University College London

"Raising the age of sale on tobacco products is a critical step on the road to creating the first ever smoke-free generation."
"If implemented, the prime minister will deserve great credit for putting the health of UK citizens ahead of the interests of the tobacco lobby."
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive, Cancer Research UK

Government to introduce historic new law to protect future generations of young people from the harms of smoking.
Smoking is the UK’s biggest preventable killer – causing around 1 in 4 cancer deaths and 64,000 in England alone – costing the economy and wider society £17 billion each year.
Move would be the most significant public health intervention in a generation, saving tens of thousands of lives and saving the NHS billions of pounds.
Further crackdown on youth vaping will see government consult on restricting disposable vapes and regulating flavours and packaging to reduce their appeal to children.

It won't be a first, but it is a far-reaching solution, however unpopular it will be, to the massive threat to human health and longevity smoking represents. It is a radical preventive measure applicable only in England once the proposal is approved by Parliament. But as a health measure for the future, the legal change could not apply in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It would be up to them to decide whether they too feel such a measure is worthwhile legislating.

New Zealand thought it was, and became the first country to do what the UK is proposing, last year.

The UK's Rishi Sunak saw fit this week to propose raising the legal age of cigarette purchases by a year, in Britain. The idea is that after the first year the legal age of purchase would rise another year, year after year, until eventually it reaches the point where it will be illegal for the entire population to purchase tobacco products.The initial goal is to reach the point where it will become illegal for young people to buy tobacco.

The prime minister's proposal was presented at the Conservative Party's annual conference. A step up from the current legislation where it is illegal for anyone to sell cigarettes or tobacco products to anyone under 18 years of age throughout the United Kingdom. The prime minister's office clarified the intention of the incremental changes; to stop children turning 14 years old this year and those even younger, from ever being sold cigarettes legally in England.

There is no intention at this point to criminalize smoking. Anyone who can legally buy cigarettes at the present time, will not be prevented from continuing to do so in future. The intention wasn't to criminalize smoking. Since the 1970s the number of people in the UK who smoke declined by two-thirds. About 13 percent of the population -- 6.4 million people -- still smoke.

In 2007 the legal age of sale for tobacco was raised from 16 to 18, by the British government. A move that succeeded in reducing prevalence of smoking among 16 and 17-year-olds, by 30 percent. With this latest announcement, a plan to increase the legal smoking age steadily, year over year, the nation's health experts have applauded the plan.

In addition to his tobacco cessation stance, Mr. Sunak said as well that his government would introduce measures restricting the availability of vapes (e-cigarettes), to children. At the present time it is illegal to sell vapes to children in the UK under age 18. Nonetheless youth vaping has tripled in the past three years; more British children vape now, than smoke.

"[This is a] prohibitionist wheeze [that is] hideously illiberal and unconservative."
"[It] will create a two-tier society in which adults buy cigarettes informally from slightly older adults and will inflate the black market in general."
Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics, Institute of Economic Affairs