Annually raising age of tobacco sale could help make smoking a thing of the past

Yorkshire Cancer Research strongly supports Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to raise the age of sale of tobacco by one year, every year until no one can legally buy tobacco products.

Yorkshire Cancer Research strongly supports Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to raise the age of sale of tobacco by one year, every year until no one can legally buy tobacco products.

Following in the footsteps of New Zealand, where this policy has already been adopted, this action represents a major step toward making smoking a thing of the past.

However, it is important that people who currently smoke are not forgotten, and funding and support is provided by the government in order to help them quit.

Smoking rates are steadily declining in Yorkshire, but nearly 13% of the region’s population – or nearly half a million people - still smoke. In some areas of Yorkshire, smoking rates are among the worst in England.

There is no safe level of smoking. Every week in Yorkshire, 90 people are diagnosed with a cancer caused by smoking and sadly, 60 people in the region lose their lives. Up to two in three people who smoke will die if they do not quit.

The devastating impact of tobacco smoking disproportionately impacts people living in our most deprived communities. Teenagers are four times more likely to smoke if their primary caregiver smokes.

Introducing this measure will make a real difference to England’s young people and will help the Government realise its ambition for the country to be ‘smokefree’. It’s also essential that this important step forward is supported with strong measures and funding to enforce this policy and ensure the illegal sales trade does not flourish in its wake.

Effective support must also continue to be available to people who are trying to stop smoking. People are three times as likely to quit smoking successfully if they use stop smoking products alongside behavioural support provided by stop smoking services. In the last year, more than 1,400 people across the region have quit smoking with the support of services funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research. But there remains a long way to go.

We welcome the announcement that there will be more funding for local stop smoking services and a focus on national mass media campaigns aimed at supporting people to stop smoking. However, additional regulations such as a substantial raise in the cost of tobacco through higher taxes and increasing smokefree places to de-normalise smoking and protect young people would further accelerate the Government’s goal to achieve a smoking rate of 5% or less by 2030.

Together, this combined approach will not only reduce the number of people starting to smoke each year, but also save lives by providing the tools and resources to give people the best chance of successfully stopping smoking for good.