Denmark Considering Banning Tobacco Sales to Anyone Born After 2010; U.K. Considers Tobacco 25

In the last week, health officials for two European countries have announced the possibility of aggressively increasing the minimum age to purchase tobacco purchase in their countries.

The most aggressive option was introduced today by Magnus Heunicke, the minister of health for Denmark. He suggested that the country could ban the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to anyone born after 2010. While it doesn’t appear to be a formal proposal yet, Heunicke told reporters, “our hope is that all people born in 2010 and later will never start smoking or using nicotine-based products.”

Currently, Denmark’s minimum age to purchase tobacco products is 18-years-old.

The proposal is similar to one that has been advanced in New Zealand which would ban those born after 2007 from purchasing tobacco products. While New Zealand’s plan is further along, like Denmark, it has not yet enacted an actual law saying as much. The law’s intent is to reduce the number of future smokers by barring them from every legally being able to purchase tobacco products. If modeled like New Zealand, it would mean that people born in 2010 or before would be able to purchase tobacco once they become of legal age, while anyone born after 2010 would never reach the legal age to purchase tobacco products.

Denmark isn’t the only European country considering major changes to the minimum age to purchase tobacco products. The United Kingdom’s Department of Health and Social Care has commissioned two independent reviews of its tobacco policies and its plans for a “SmokeFree 2030,” which is actually a target of “5 percent smoking prevalence or less in England.”

Javed Khan is leading the tobacco control review and he told The Times that he was considering the New Zealand proposal as part of a wide range of options that could see an increase of the U.K.’s minimum age to purchase tobacco products from 18-years-old to anywhere between 19-25. Khan’s review is expected to be completed next month.