Strategy against smoking: No nicotine after a certain date of birth

The concept of a “tobacco-free generation” (TFG) is gaining more and more supporters internationally. Cigarettes etc. will then no longer be legally available after a certain date of birth.

The strategy is simply about legal regulations that are intended to permanently “phase out” access to at least tobacco and tobacco products. “Despite decades of public health efforts and advances in smoking cessation treatment, smoking is still the leading cause of preventable disease, disability and death in the United States. Smoking kills more people in this country than HIV, drug overdoses, alcohol, traffic accidents and firearm-related injuries,” wrote Katharine Silbaugh (Boston University School of Law) and her co-authors in the New England Journal of Medicine.”

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The USA is doing quite well internationally in terms of smoking rates (adult smokers, daily consumption) at 11 percent (although around a fifth still smoke more or less regularly). The OECD average is 15.9 percent as the proportion of smokers in the population; in Sweden, for example, it is 8.7 percent and in Austria 20.7 percent.

Ultimately, the ban on smoking in restaurants in Austria since November 1, 2019 is unlikely to be enough to significantly reduce the smoking rate. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), smoking causes around eight million deaths annually internationally. This is why various states and regions are already thinking much further ahead. The US expert reports on an initiative in the United States that has been successful – legally for the time being: “An ordinance passed in the community of Brookline in Massachusetts will phase out the sale of tobacco or nicotine-containing products by prohibiting them from being sold to people born on or after January 1, 2000. As a result, after a certain time, no one will be old enough to buy tobacco products.”

Protests by the tobacco industry

Of course, there were protests and legal measures by opponents, especially the tobacco industry. But the smoking advocates suffered a bitter defeat. The authors: “The Massachusetts Supreme Court upheld the TFG ordinance in a unanimous decision in March 2024 (…).” Three other cities in Massachusetts (Melrose, Stoneham and Wakefield) followed suit with similar ordinances.

There are additional examples internationally, including at the state level: In New Zealand, a TFG law was passed in 2022, but was repealed after a change of government. This is reminiscent of the situation with the long and politically volatile process of introducing the restaurant smoking ban in Austria. “In April 2024, a TFG law in the UK received strong support in parliament at first reading,” reported Katharine Silbaugh and her co-authors in the world’s most respected medical journal (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2403297).

Norway, Australia and countries such as Singapore and Malaysia are already considering similar steps. The legal measures to ensure a “tobacco-free generation” in the future are different: the law withdrawn in New Zealand and the planned regulations only affected or are intended to affect tobacco products (cigarettes and tobacco vaporizers). In Massachusetts, however, they also want to phase out other e-cigarettes for the next generation.