New British law aimed at creating a 'smoke-free generation.' What is Canada doing?

The U.K. government has become the latest jurisdiction to introduce a lifelong ban on smoking, as its Tobacco and Vapes Bill has cleared Parliament and now needs only royal assent to become law. Here’s what to know.

The bill, which had its first reading in November of 2024 , aims to stop anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009, from taking up smoking by making it illegal to sell them tobacco.

The current age to buy tobacco products in the U.K. is 18, which means anyone born on this date in 2008 or earlier can legally purchase them. The new law would freeze that date at the start of next year, so that no new legal smokers would ever be added to the country.

Creating a “smoke-free generation,” as many are calling it, is part of a series of measures aimed at tackling the health effects of smoking, one of Britain’s leading causes of preventable death and illness.

Other new measures include banning vaping in cars carrying children, in playgrounds and outside schools, and inside hospitals. (Vaping would still be allowed outside hospitals to support those trying to quit smoking.)

“Prevention is better than cure,” said Wes Streeting , the U.K. Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. “This reform will save lives, ease pressure on the (National Health Service) and build a healthier Britain.”

Smoking is already on the decline there. In 2011, the rate was 20 per cent of the adult population, and by 2023 it had fallen to 12 per cent, or six million people. However, some studies showed a rise in certain demographics, such as middle- and upper-class women, where rates rose to 15 per cent from 12 per cent over a similar timeframe.

In November, the Maldives became the first country to enact a generational smoking ban — anyone born after Jan. 1, 2007, in the island nation in the Indian Ocean can no longer buy tobacco products.

The ban applies among the country’s roughly 500,000 citizens and to visitors to a region known for its luxury tourism.

In 2021, New Zealand began a move toward similar laws but, following a general election in 2023, the new government repealed the legislation before it could take effect.

Canada has not attempted a generational ban, though it has long had strong legislation around tobacco products, and in 2022 became the first country to print health warnings on individual cigarettes as well as the packaging.

Age limits for purchase vary across the country, but are usually 18 or 19. However, in March of 2020, Prince Edward Island changed the age to 21 from 19, with exemptions for those who were already old enough to buy such products. Newfoundland has also had consultations on the possibility of creating a smoke-free generation.

Michael Chaiton, a professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, thinks so.

“It’s always possible,” he said to the idea of the law being repealed at some point. “But it is a law with very strong support from the public. And the process was started by the Conservative government and then finished by the current Labour government. So it is something that does cross party lines.”

Chaiton called the ban “one of those ideas that both feels radical but is also a very common-sense idea.”

He added: “If we came to it fresh, knowing what we know about tobacco today, we wouldn’t sell cigarettes in convenience stores and gas stations. When we came to legalize cannabis, you know, nobody was saying: Let’s make sure that we get it into the convenience stores.”

He noted that laws like the existing ones in Canada and the new ban in the U.K. represent “figuring out new ways of being able to address that sort of historical accident of the widespread availability of cigarettes.”

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