Tom Earnshaw
The UK's minister for pubic health has issued a stark warning to the Gen Z population who think smoking is 'cool' ahead of the Government's flagship policy to ban the practice for everyone under the age of 15.
With the Tobacco and Vapes Bill introduced to Parliament and another vote on the bill taking place this week, MPs could be just months away from the introducing a new smoking ban in the UK.
If put in to law, it will mean everyone born after January 2009 will not be able to buy a cigarette, or any tobacco product, legally in the country.
The hope is to create the country's first ever smoke-free generation and relieve pressure placed on the NHS through smoking-related illness, with the health service spending more than £2 billion every year helping those with ailments caused by smoking tobacco.
Retailers who sell tobacco to those born after January 2009 will be in line for harsh punishments and tested in a similar way to how they are currently tested for under 18 smoking and alcohol test purchases.
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Ahead of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill heading back to the House of Commons for a second vote this week (26 November), Andrew Gwynne, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention, spoke to LADbible about the looming ban.
In a world where brat summer has been a thing, prioritised pleasure over all else, and with Instagram having accounts such as 'Cigfluencers' dedicated to your favourite celebrities smoking away - Paul Mescal, Sabrina Carpenter, Ella Purnell, Oasis, and Kate Moss have all recently been posted on their with a cig in their hand or mouth - it is no surprise that interest in smoking is on the rise.
In fact, research conducted by University College London, funded by Cancer Research UK, said there has been a five-fold increase in the use of non-cigarette tobacco products such as cigars and pipes over the past decade. And a particular rise in all kinds of smoking has been seen in those aged 18 to 24.
Mr Gwynne has a serious message to Gen Z and Gen Alpha thinking we're in an age where it's 'cool' to light up again.
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"Look, the worst thing that you can do is have a politicians say, 'don't do something' or 'something is not cool'," he told LADbible.
"So I'm going to take the politician hat off, and as a dad and a granddad, and as somebody who grew up in the 1990s... I was probably in the LADbible audience profile in the 1990s.
"I was in my 20s, smoking was really prevalent. Lots of young people who are now my age smoked and lots of celebrities smoked."
Mr Gwynne's message is simple: "Smoking kills. It's an addictive product.
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"It harms others. There is nothing sexy about your clothes stinking. There is nothing sexy about your fingers turning yellow.
"There is nothing sexy about having bad breath. There is nothing sexy about smoking."
He adds: "But more importantly, it kills. It harms you, it harms others.
"And that's why this Government is going to create a smoke-free UK."
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As well as a smoking ban, the Government is introducing a first of its kind vaping tax that'll see the cost of vaping sky rocket.