‘Step in the right direction’: Health experts hope U.K. smoking ban pushes Canada to do the same

A U.K. tobacco bill targets a smoke-free generation but faces enforcement questions. Annie Bergeron-Oliver reports on the implications and Canada’s response.

OTTAWA – Health experts are encouraging the federal government to consider introducing a lifetime ban on the purchase of cigarettes for people 17 and under after lawmakers in the United Kingdom approved a bill to do just that.

The proposed U.K. law, dubbed the “Tobacco and Vapes Bill,” aims to stop anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009, now aged 17, from taking up smoking. It has been approved by both houses of Britain’s Parliament but still requires royal assent.

“It’s a step in the right direction and we’re really encouraged to see this,” said Dr. Lesley James, the director of health policy and systems in Ontario for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. “We’re hoping officials in Canada will see this and see what can be done here within our borders, to see what can be done to address smoking.”

Tobacco use remains a significant preventable cause of premature death in Canada, with the government estimating that approximately 46,000 people die from tobacco-related illnesses every year.

“The overwhelming majority of people who smoke began as underage youth,” said Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society. “If we can prevent youth from starting, we have a huge impact long term.”

Canada has set a goal of reducing tobacco use to less than five per cent by 2035. The 2024 Canadian Community Health Survey estimates 11 per cent of Canadians aged 18 years and over reported smoking.

When it comes to vaping, data from Statistics Canada suggests one in 10 Canadians aged 20 to 24, and one in 50 aged 25 and older, use a vape every day.

Ottawa cardiologist Dr. Hassan Mir has extensively studied the effects of smoking and vaping, and says it’s among the worst things for the human body.

“There is not many things, if anything, that smoking won’t drastically make worse,” said Mir. “It’s why I often say smoking is the most harmful thing you can do for your health and quitting is the best thing you can do for your health.”

Mir, who is familiar with the U.K. law, said he believes it could help reduce tobacco consumption among youth. Canada, he said, should consider adopting a similar bill that helps prevent young Canadians from starting smoking in the first place.

“At the Heart Institute, we support about 30,000 people per year to help them quit smoking. But the reality is that we’re seeing them too far into the addiction,” he said. “We need upstream interventions that can hopefully reduce the funnel of people that are addicted to smoking in nicotine.”

By restricting access to cigarettes, Mir says a generation of people will not be able to buy them through conventional mechanisms, making it less likely youth will get addicted to nicotine.

“I think the reality is that, as we try to address the harms of smoking and the continued prevalence, not just in Canada but across the world, we need to think of stronger policies and regulations,” he said.

What’s the back story?

The United Kingdom isn’t the first territory to adopt such a law. In 2022, New Zealand introduced a very similar bill, but it was overturned in 2024 after a new government came into power.

At the time, health experts wrote to Health Canada urging them to consider implementing a similar ban. Ottawa Public Health was among those advocating for the change, writing a letter to Health Canada encouraging them to ban an entire generation from being able to purchase Tabacco.

“By following a similar approach, it is recommended that Canada adapt New Zealand’s approach to reach the same five per cent target,” the memo to Health Canada said at the time.

That memo also asked Health Canada to amend smoking laws to increase the federal minimum age for the purchase of tobacco to 21 years old, with the exception of smoking cessation products. Canadian federal law currently prohibits the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 18, though some provinces have introduced stronger rules raising that age to 19, or even 21.

Ottawa Public Health did not make anyone available for an interview request Wednesday about their 2023 memo and about the U.K.’s bill.

A study posted on the Government of Canada’s website that aimed to assess the potential impacts of a “smoke-free generation,” or SFG, with a perpetual ban on cigarette sales to anyone born after 2009 found that after 50 years, the policy would lead to $2.3 billion less in health-care costs.

The policy, the report said, would also lead to nearly 480,000 more quality-adjusted life years, a metric used in economics to quantify the benefit of medical treatments.

“The implementation of an SFG policy will bring substantive health benefits to the population in Canada. Although health-care cost savings are lower than the combination of lost tax revenues and the decline in the GDP from the Canadian tobacco industry, the value of the health benefits realized outweigh the negative offsets,” the report found.

Asked whether Health Canada was considering a U.K. style ban, the department said the Government of Canada has invested $66 million annually since 2018 to help Canadians quit smoking and reduce the harms of nicotine addiction. The department did not specifically say whether it was, or had ever, seriously considered a lifetime ban for people aged 17 and younger.

“The Government of Canada works collaboratively with partners and key stakeholders to protect Canadians, especially youth, from the harms of smoking using the best available data and evidence,” said Mark Johnson, a spokesperson for Health Canada.

Cunningham says the fact Canada’s smoking prevalence is so much lower than it’s ever been makes a U.K.-style policy that much more feasible.

“It does have the potential to have a huge impact long term,” said Cunningham. “What’s important is that anyone who’s currently smoking or vaping would be exempt … So, you know, it’s this type of slow phase in, long-term phase in that would be the approach.”