On April 16, UK lawmakers passed the “Tobacco and Vapes Bill” by a vote of 383 to 67. The law, put forth by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, would ban anyone aged 15 and under from ever buying cigarettes. If implemented, the UK would have one of the strictest tobacco control laws in the world.
Having passed its first test in the UK Parliament, the bill will now go to the next stage, where it will be subject to amendment.
Rather than criminalizing smoking, the law would make it illegal for anyone born since 2009 to buy cigarettes. A similar law in New Zealand recently faltered before being implemented after newly elected officials repealed it.
In contrast to the UK’s efforts, on April 26, US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced the Biden administration would again delay finalizing new regulations that would ban the sale of menthol cigarettes. The US Food and Drug Administration, which drafted the rule, has sought to ban menthol cigarettes for years without success.
“This rule has garnered historic attention, and the public comment period has yielded an immense amount of feedback, including from various elements of the civil rights and criminal justice movement,” Secretary Becerra said in a statement. “It’s clear that there are still more conversations to have, and that will take significantly more time.”
In response, American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer said the association was “deeply dismayed” that the White House continues to delay ending the sale of menthol cigarettes.
“Every day that President Biden fails to finalize these rules, he loses an incredible opportunity to reduce the death and disease associated with tobacco use,” Wimmer said. “Ending the sale of menthol cigarettes would have helped eliminate the dramatic health inequities in who uses tobacco products in the United States. The Biden Administration’s decision to delay gives the tobacco industry more time to predatorily target and hook youth as well as members of historically underrepresented communities, including Black individuals to their deadly products.”
