A study estimates that banning tobacco for youth would prevent at least 1.2 million cancer deaths.

What would happen if, following in the footsteps of the United Kingdom, we banned the sale of tobacco to everyone under 18? The Lancet, one of the industry’s most prestigious scientific journals, has just published its most comprehensive analysis to date. influence of style regulation and, above all, the consequences that We will have to create a “smoke-free generation” history. The conclusions are obvious. An analysis by the University of Santiago de Compostela said restricting tobacco sales to all people born after 2006. would prevent at least 1.2 million deaths all over the world. Mainly reducing the effects of lung cancer.

Study estimates at least two-thirds of lung cancer deaths could be avoided

According to the researchers who led this work, Eliminating smoking among new generations will help “increase life expectancy” and “reduce premature deaths” by 2050. In particular, it is assumed that reducing smoking rates will increase life expectancy to one and a half years of the entire population in just three decades. Likewise, this study shows that quitting smoking will reduce the incidence of lung cancer by two-thirds and minimize the burden of other heart and respiratory diseases associated with smoking.

The analysis calculated that If this measure were to be applied worldwide from now onBy the end of the century, almost half of the deaths from lung cancer among men (1.8 million deaths) and almost a third of the expected deaths among women from this cause (1.1 million in total) could be avoided. The total number of lives saved by this measure could be even higher if, for example, the number of deaths associated with other diseases caused by smoking or harm associated with exposure to secondhand smoke.

Anti-tobacco measures

“If governments are implementing ambitious plans Reducing smoking and creating a tobacco-free generation could not only save many lives, but also significantly reduce the burden on health care systems and burden of disease associated with smoking” says Julia Rey Brandaris, a researcher at the University of Santiago de Compostela and one of the leaders of this work. Currently, several countries have set themselves the goal of reducing smoking rates below 5% in the coming years, but only a few, such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand have proposed an outright ban on the sale of these products to little ones.

Experts also advocate increasing prices for these products and increasing areas where smoking is prohibited.

Banning the sale of tobacco to young people is one of the most popular measures in recent years, but not the only one. Josep Maria Suelvez, head of the Service for the Prevention and Control of Smoking of the Catalan Public Health Agency, advocates the application of new rules to reduce the incidence of smoking, such as e.g. “increase the price of this product”“use neutral packaging” “Expand places where smoking is prohibited” and “regulate new nicotine products” such as e-cigarettes. “In Spain, where tobacco causes more than 50,000 deaths annually, most of these measures would be necessary and should be urgently implemented, as demanded by the scientific community,” the expert said in a statement to Science Media Center Spain.