No sale of tobacco to people under 18

The N-VA has readied a bill that increases the age from which tobacco products may be purchased from 16 to 18. “While the global number of smokers is in gradual decline, the number of young people that start smoking is on the increase. Increasing the legal age is intended to further discourage them from smoking,” says Member of Parliament Renate Hufkens. The proposal is in accordance with a recent advice from the Superior Health Council and with a large number of European neighbours, including Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

With 18,600 victims annually, smoking remains one of the biggest causes of death in Belgium. Research by the Association for Alcohol and Other Drug Problems last year showed that one in three young people in secondary education has smoked at some point, a quarter of them has smoked in the past year, and one in ten young people is a regular smoker. Apart from regular cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco also seems to be popular among young people.

Prevention
“Research shows that young people still turn to tobacco products easily, but also that they run a higher risk of addiction. Therefore it is important to put maximum effort into dissuading minors from smoking, thus preventing addiction. This also prevents us from needing to use more and more measures to fight smoking addictions, which demand a large share of the Social security Social security is currently managed at the Federal level in Belgium. The most important pillars of Belgian social security are: sickness and invalidity insurance (NIDHI), pensions, unemployment insurance and child allowances. In addition, occupational illness, occupational accidents and annual holidays are dealt with at this level. Some Flemish parties have been campaigning for years for (large parts of) social security to be transferred to the Regions and Communities. social security budget annually,” Renate Hufkens explains. “Prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to young people under 18 therefore fits in perfectly with the prevention strategy.”