The ban on the sale of tobacco to young people born between 2006 and 2010 could prevent around 1.2 million deaths from lung cancer by the end of the century, according to a study led by the US Cancer Agency. OMSCirc, published this Thursday (3).
Smoking is the main risk factor for lung cancer, the most common and deadly in the world.
The authors of the study, published in The Lancet Public Healthcalculate that by the end of the century there could be more than 2.95 million deaths from lung cancer among people born at the beginning of 2006 and the end of 2010, a range of the population that totals more than 650 million people.
Deaths from lung cancer are not only due to tobacco, but also “other risk factors” such as passive smoking or air pollutionthe authors calculate.
However, if the sale of tobacco to this generation is prohibitedaround 1.2 million of the 2.95 million deaths could be avoided by 2095, according to the research, one of the first to assess the impact of a “tobacco-free generation”.
Overall, more could be avoided lung cancer deaths in men (45.8%) than in women (30.9%), according to the study, which encompasses 185 countries and is based mainly on data on mortality and cancer incidence on five continents.
A trend “probably related to the higher prevalence and earlier onset of smoking in men”, point out the researchers.
The authors are experts from the universities of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Pretoria (South Africa), Otago (New Zealand), Ouro Preto (Brazil), the American Cancer Society and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, in some regions of the world, such as North America, some parts of Europe, Australia and New Zealand, the proportion of preventable deaths thanks to this tobacco-free generation would be higher in women than in men.
By region, it is among women in Western Europe (77.7%) and men in Central and Eastern Europe (74.3%) that the percentage of preventable deaths is highest.
Insufficient
In 2023, the European Conference on Tobacco and Health (ECToH) published a Declaration in Madrid in which it called for legislation to ban tobacco use among young people and advertising in its entirety.
The initiatives to a “tobacco-free generation” have been tried in several countries such as New Zealand, several regions of Australia and the United States.
In New Zealand, a pioneer in approving, in 2022, the ban on the sale of cigarettes to people born after 2008, the new conservative government announced, at the end of 2023, the abandonment of these measures.
In the United Kingdom, the Labor Prime Minister, Keir Starmerplans to revive the conservative project Rishi Sunak so that children under 15 cannot legally buy cigarettes.
The controversy lies in the legality of prohibiting the use of a substance by young people when they reach adulthood.
On the other hand, a “tobacco-free generation” policy will not be enough to tackle the scourge of smoking, the study authors point out.
To reduce it, experts insist on the importance of measures already implemented, such as increasing taxes, smoke-free places or support for those who want to stop smoking.
