UK cracks down on smoking

The UK will expand its tobacco regulation, giving it some of the toughest anti-smoking laws in the world. The last British government’s proposal of increasing the legal age for buying cigarettes by one year annually — a de facto ban for anyone born after 2009 — was dropped, but the new administration has revived and strengthened it: The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will also make smoking in school playgrounds, and outside schools and hospitals, illegal.

The country’s health minister said the plan is to create “a smoke-free generation.” The idea of an ever-increasing minimum age for tobacco was first proposed in New Zealand, but has since been dropped there.