More than 1,200 public health leaders have called for the tobacco and vapes bill to be passed swiftly through parliament to “protect future generations”.
They said in a cross-party letter that the “gamechanging” measures outlined were “far too important to let it slip off the agenda”.
The House of Lords is preparing to scrutinise the bill on the first day of its committee stage. The letter notes there had been a six-month gap between the bill’s second reading and Monday’s debate.
The bill would make it illegal for anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 to ever buy tobacco. It also includes powers to restrict the packaging, marketing and flavours of e-cigarettes.
Signed by more than 1,200 health professionals including doctors, nurses and public health directors, the letter stresses that the bill is urgently needed.
The chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, Hazel Cheeseman, said: “Every week, thousands of young people become trapped in a cycle of deadly addiction that will shorten their lives. Tobacco is a uniquely harmful product, killing more than half of long-term users. Politicians can protect future generations by passing this truly gamechanging legislation.”
The latest figures show that 11.9% of UK adults smoke, the equivalent of about 6 million people.
Peter Roderick, the spokesperson for addiction for the Association of Directors of Public Health, said the bill was an “opportunity to save even more lives, protect future generations from becoming addicted to this lethal product, and give freedom to live a healthier life to the 88% of people who don’t smoke”.
Tobacco groups have threatened the government with legal action over the proposed generational ban and have courted rightwing MPs in an apparent attempt to muster support for watering down the proposals.
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The Guardian and the Examination, a non-profit newsroom that investigates global health threats, reported in June that the Tory peer Ed Vaizey had proposed delaying another key proposal of the bill, a ban on heated tobacco, weeks after a leading cigarette company paid for him to visit its research facility in Switzerland.
A survey by the smokers’ rights group Forest of more than 2,000 adults found that 58% would support an alternative to a generational ban, a quarter would keep the legal age for tobacco sales at 18 and a third said the age should be increased to 21.
