Increasing the minimum legal age for the sale of tobacco to 21 should be a “stepping stone” to the complete phasing out of the product in Ireland, the Irish Heart Foundation has said.
Cabinet is due to approve plans this week to increase the legal age for the purchase of tobacco from 18, amid concerns about a recent plateau in the decline of smoking rates in Ireland.
According to the Health Ireland Survey 2023, published by the Department of Health, 18 per cent of the population are current smokers – a figure that has remained unchanged since 2021.
The most recent figures for young people, from 2019, showed smoking rates among teenage boys in Ireland had increased for the first time in 25 years, up to 16.2 per cent, from 13.1 per cent four years earlier. The proportion of teenage girls who smoked was unchanged, at 12.8 per cent.
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Chris Macey, director of advocacy and patient support with the Irish Heart Foundation, said the decision to increase to 21 the age at which a person can legally be sold tobacco is “one of the most important public health measures”.
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“It is going to protect the next generation from the effects of smoking. We sort of lost our way in recent years. That whole tobacco-free policy of getting down to 5 per cent smoking rate by 2025 is lost. We’ve got to be more radical,” he said.
A new law in the UK will each year increase the legal age for the sale of cigarettes by one year, meaning those born in or after 2009 will never be able to legally buy cigarettes. Mr Macey said this should be a route the State takes in the future.
“This measure, which is really important, should be a stepping stone into the phasing out of the legal sale of tobacco. This measure, which is the next logical step, should be accompanied by a national debate on phasing out tobacco in Ireland,” he added.
According to the HSE, tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in Ireland, with almost 6,000 smokers dying each year from tobacco-related diseases. Smoking-related deaths are mainly due to cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart disease.
In a 2022 position paper, the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland called for the legal age for smoking to be increased to 21, stating “the earlier a person starts smoking, as with any addictive substance, the more likely they are to develop an addiction”.
“International modelling evidence suggests that Tobacco 21 policies have the potential to reduce smoking rates by 25 per cent among 15- to 17-year-olds and by 15 per cent among 18- to 20-year-olds,” the paper said.
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