Prince Edward Island Considers Tobacco Sales Ban for Future Generations

In a bold bid to stop young people from smoking, health officials in Prince Edward Island are proposing a ban on tobacco sales to anyone born after a certain date.

The idea, first introduced in New Zealand and now progressing in the United Kingdom, is included in a consultation paper released earlier this week by the Island’s Health Department and its chief public health office.

The five-year wellness plan, titled Live Well P.E.I., calls for a “tobacco-free generation” policy, suggesting that no one born after January 1, 2009, would ever be able to legally purchase cigarettes.

“The measures proposed by P.E.I. are groundbreaking,” said Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society. “P.E.I. would be the first province to do this, and we support the P.E.I. plan.”

The P.E.I. document says the generational approach recognizes that most smokers begin their habit in their teens, which means preventing early adoption is key to ending “the tobacco epidemic.”

“It could have a huge impact long term,” Cunningham said.

Earlier this year, New Zealand repealed its pioneering tobacco-free generation law, which would have banned sales to those born after January 1, 2009. A new government elected in October said it planned to take a different approach.

The British government’s proposed legislation for a similar ban, with the same cut-off date, cleared its first reading in Parliament last month. Under the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, children turning 15 this year or younger will never legally be sold tobacco, creating modern Britain’s “first smoke-free generation.” The bill also includes measures to reduce youth vaping.

Opponents of the bill, such as the smokers’ rights lobby group Forest, argue that the proposed ban risks creating a black market and will “treat future generations of adults like kids.”

In Canada, smoking is responsible for 47,000 premature deaths each year and remains the country’s leading preventable cause of death, according to 2022 data from Statistics Canada. About 125 Canadians die every day from a smoking-related illness — more than the total of all deaths due to alcohol, opioids, suicides, murders, and traffic collisions combined, according to the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.

In P.E.I., about 13 percent of residents over the age of 11 smoke daily, which is higher than the Canadian average.

Health officials say vaping remains popular among Island students, increasing from six percent among Grade 7 students to 35 percent among those in Grade 12.

Despite this, P.E.I. health officials assert that the province is a national leader in smoking and nicotine vaping control. In 2020, P.E.I. became the first province in Canada to increase the legal age to purchase tobacco or electronic smoking devices to 21 years old.

The legal age to buy tobacco in other parts of Canada is either 18 or 19.

In 2021, P.E.I. restricted the sale of electronic smoking devices and e-liquids to “tobacconist shops,” where admission is limited to those old enough to legally buy tobacco.

The consultation document indicates that provincial officials also aim to limit the sale of tobacco products to tobacconist shops.