Coulter urges 19 as new Smoking Age Limit
Rev Dr Robert Coulter, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for North Antrim and UUP Stormont Commissioner, has called for the smoking age limit to be raised to 19.
Dr Coulter, who is also UUP Health Spokesman, was speaking in support of an Assembly motion noting the increase in the age restrictions on purchasing tobacco that has been implemented in Great Britain, and calling on the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to implement the same age restriction in Northern Ireland, as a matter or urgency.
Assemblyman Dr Coulter added: “The current age restriction of 16 years was established in 1937, at a time when the health dangers of smoking were unknown.
“A clear body of evidence from the British Medical Association, which was highlighted in 2006 when the issue was debated in Scotland, shows that addiction increases the earlier a person begins to smoke. The earlier in life a person smokes, the harder it is for them to give it up.
“In 2006, the BMA also called for an increase in the age at which people could buy drink or cigarettes. It is important to bracket those two addiction problems together, because they both account for a great deal of the spending in the Health Service budget.
“It is also important to note the threat of passive smoking. It is not simply the potential smokers who will benefit from an increase in the age at which tobacco can be purchased: day and daily, the people around them will benefit.
“The BMA’s ‘Adolescent Health’ report, published in 2003, argues that reducing the availability of cigarettes through age restrictions not only helps to reduce tobacco use, but when reinforced by the establishment of smoke-free public places and backed by media campaigns and school programmes, can reduce what the BMA called ‘the prevalence of smoking’.
“Such an integrated approach is more likely to succeed, since it recognises the complex causes of smoking, especially in relation to adolescent behaviour.
“Another example of that integrated approach can be found on the island of Guernsey, which offers a smoking quit-line, backed by free nicotine patches.
“Fining shopkeepers who sell tobacco to people who are under 18, which was introduced in South Africa, should be considered as part of an integrated approach. That approach has been taken with alcohol and knives, so why not with tobacco?
“It is clear from the statistics that adolescents are the most effective group to target in an anti-smoking drive. Scottish statistics show that 6% of 13-year-olds and 19% of 15-year-olds are regular smokers; approximately 14% of 15-year-old boys and 24% of 15-year-old girls smoke.
“Although that is a reduction from 30% for both boys and girls, the figure remains significantly higher among girls. The changing pattern from 30 years ago is that smoking is a much more persistent problem among teenage and young adult girls than boys.
“The significant gender shift in tobacco addiction is of great concern to the medical profession, as is the prevalence of binge drinking among teenage girls and young-adult women.
“In 2005 and 2006 respectively, the Scottish and Westminster Parliaments passed legislation on this matter; it is only reasonable that the Northern Ireland Assembly follows their examples.
“Australia, Malta, Norway, Finland and the Republic of Ireland all have a purchase age of 18 for tobacco, and South Africa is considering measures to reduce smoking prevalence.
“Six out of eight Canadian provinces set the cigarette purchase age at 19, and several states in the USA are considering raising the legal age from 18 to 19 to stop high-school students buying cigarettes and sharing them with their classmates.
“Action must be taken against substances, such as tobacco and alcohol as well as drugs that significantly impair the health of the people who use them and, in due course, contribute significant additional costs to the Health Service.
“In future, those costs could prove so great that the Health Service would break down. It also raises the spectre of the need for selective treatment for people who use such substances.
“It would be prudent to impose a ban on smoking until the age of 18, or even 19, and to take positive action to improve the level of public health that we all know is necessary to protect the Health Service budget and to look after the well-being of our young people,” said Assemblyman Dr Coulter.