New Zealand's new government recently announced that it will revoke the world's first 'generation' smoking ban imposed by the previous Jacinda Arden government. New Zealand scrapped the smoking ban took place in order to fund tax cuts. In 2022, New Zealand passed a pioneering legislation that introduced a steadily rising smoking age to stop those born after January 2009 from ever being able to legally buy cigarettes. The law was designed to prevent thousands of smoking-related deaths and save the health system billions of dollars. Hence, it was called the 'generation' smoking ban. With New Zealand's smoking ban reversal grabbing the headlines, the question arises which countries have imposed similar kinds of smoking ban? Below are the top 5 countries-
1) United Kingdom (UK)
Following New Zealand's 2022 footsteps, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak proposed a legislation for generational smoking ban. As per the legislation, anyone aged 14 or under will never be able to legally buy cigarettes or any other tobacco product. The idea is to prevent future generations from smoking, as nine in 10 people say they started the habit before the age of 21, according to data from Cancer Research.
