Yorkshire Post

Call to raise legal smoking age to 21

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THE LEGAL age to buy cigarettes should be raised from 18 to 21 as part of efforts to deliver a “smokefree generation”, a group of MPs and peers has said.

The parliament­arians are also calling for tobacco giants to be charged for the impact they have on society, with the millions raised channelled into stopsmokin­g initiative­s. Taxes on tobacco products should also be raised to reduce their affordabil­ity and put people off, the All Party Parliament­ary Group on Smoking and Health said.

Its chairman, the Conservati­ve MP Bob Blackman, said: “Smoking remains the leading cause of premature death and health inequaliti­es. Ratcheting up tobacco regulation further and faster is essential to achieve the Government’s vision for prevention, to increase healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035 while reducing inequaliti­es between the richest and poorest in society.”

Other measures proposed by the group include banning the sale of tobacco from unlicensed retailers or those who break laws on who should be sold to and spending more on educationa­l campaigns and making manufactur­ers insert stop-smoking informatio­n cards inside packs.

The group also wants to tighten rules on smoking in television programmes and films.

The group said that while the Health Secretary’s commitment to fund stop-smoking services is welcome, treatment “is only part of the solution”.

The British Lung Foundation welcomed the recommenda­tions. Chief executive Penny Woods said: “A ‘polluter pays levy’ could raise at least £150m. This money, which the highly profitable tobacco industry can easily afford, could fund cash-strapped stopsmokin­g services and discourage young people from ever lighting up.”

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