The U.K. just banned smoking for life for youth. Should Canada do the same?

The U.K. Parliament has passed a bill that will permanently outlaw sales of tobacco products, including cigarettes, to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill was passed by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords on Monday in an effort to create a “smokefree generation.”

2:09 Health Matters: U.K. lawmakers approve lifetime smoking ban for people born after 2008

“This historic legislation will save thousands of lives and protect the NHS. By building a healthy society, we will also help to build a healthy economy, with fewer people off work sick.”

The legislation was awaiting royal assent by King Charles III as of publication time.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is set to give British ministers the power to strengthen the existing ban on smoking in public places, at children’s playgrounds, and outside schools and hospitals for those who are above the age cutoff in the legislation.

Vaping will also be banned in cars carrying children, in playgrounds, outside schools and inside hospitals. However, vaping will still be allowed outside hospitals to help support those trying to quit.

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People will also be able to continue smoking and vaping inside their homes if they are above the cutoff age.

2:05 Health Matters: 1/3 of Canadian teens are vaping, according to Health Canada survey

The British government also made single-use vapes illegal as of June 1, 2025, applying to all retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers, importers and health-care settings and in “stop smoking” settings.

The press release defines a single-use vape as one that has “a battery you cannot recharge” and “is not refillable.”

A February University of Nottingham study states that a smoke-free generation “has the potential to substantially reduce smoking prevalence” and “gain hundreds of thousands of years of healthy life.”

The study also found that “the policy could deliver around 88,000 extra healthy life years compared with no new law” by 2075.

It also added that smoking prevalence among 12- to 30-year-olds could drop below five per cent by the late 2040s, decades earlier than expected without the policy.

The U.K. is not the first country to push forward a similar ban, with New Zealand imposing a lifetime ban on youth buying cigarettes in December 2022.

The law states that tobacco can’t ever be sold to anybody born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, also reducing the number of retailers allowed to sell tobacco from about 6,000 to 600.

The government aimed to have less than five per cent of New Zealand’s adult population smoke, which was agreed on in 2018.

While Gen Z Canadians are drinking less than older generations, they’re using more nicotine products such as vaping, e-cigarettes, traditional cigarettes and products like chewing tobacco.

This age group had the highest reported daily use of nicotine products (7.3 per cent) of any age group, according to an insurance industry report earlier this year.

In all other age groups, only five to six per cent said they use nicotine every day.

In Canada, the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act “regulates the manufacture, sale, labelling and promotion of tobacco products and vaping products sold in Canada.”

The act includes the goal to “protect the health of young persons and non-users of tobacco products from exposure to and dependence on nicotine that could result from the use of vaping products” and “protect the health of young persons by restricting access to vaping products.”

Canada also became the first country in the world in May 2023 to require health warnings to be printed directly on every individual cigarette, with some warnings stating:

• “Tobacco smoke harms children”
• “Cigarettes cause leukemia”
• “Poison in every puff”

Health Canada stated in its news release that the goal of the labels is to make it “virtually impossible” for smokers to avoid warnings.

However, there’s no indication at this time of plans for a similar ban on sales to those under a certain age in Canada.

A spokesperson for Health Canada said in an emailed statement to Global News that “the government of Canada is committed to reducing tobacco use in Canada to less than five percent by 2035, a goal recognized internationally as a critical milestone for a smoke-free future.”

“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,” the spokesperson said.

1:56 Quitting cigarettes? Why vaping is no longer recommended as alternative

Sarah Butson, CEO of the Canadian Lung Association, believes that “the easiest point of comparison between Canada and the U.K. should be the enthusiasm to make some bold measures.”

“We know that we need to address the youth nicotine problem that we have at the same time as creating measures to ensure that the progress that we’ve made in tobacco stays,” she said.

However, Butson noted that “knowledge is power, but knowledge only goes so far.”

“It really is about a comprehensive suite of options that are about education, that are about strong policy measures that protect young people but also protect people who used to smoke and don’t want to be re-triggered,” she said.

“I think there’s always going to be gaps that need to be closed in policy work. We never get it entirely perfect,” said Butson. “But I think striving for good is a goal in and of itself, and we need to be not afraid to make some of those measures along the way that we know we’re going to protect young people.”