UK doctors push to ban cigarette sales to anyone born after 2000

Cigarettes sales to anyone born after the year 2000 will become illegal in the United Kingdom if doctors secure enough legislative support for a radical new policy they are promoting, the British Medical Association (BMA) said in a news release.

BMA delegates voted in favor of the move at the group’s annual conference on Tuesday. The motion called on the board to review the potential health effects of a policy “banning forever the sale of cigarettes to people born after a certain year,” such as 2000.

It also called on the BMA to lobby the government for implementation of the ban if the review shows it would have health benefits.

“It is not expected that this policy will instantly prevent all people from smoking, but (rather it will) de-normalize cigarette smoking,” Tim Crocker-Burque, London research assistant in academic public health and BMA member, said in the release.

Eighty percent of smokers start the habit as teenagers, Crocker-Burque said, and if the ban is enforced it could create the first tobacco-free generation.

Two-thirds of smokers want to quit, according to the BMA news release.

But some in the group argued against the move, and said it would open the door to a black market of illegal cigarettes that could have even greater health risks.