BENGALURU: Taking a cue from New Zealand, which has passed a new law that prohibits anyone who is born after 2008 from buying cigarettes or tobacco products, the state health department is coming up with a similar model for Karnataka to create a tobacco-free generation by 2025. As a result, as the years pass, only fewer people will be able to buy tobacco and pave the way for a tobacco-free generation.
The State Tobacco Control Cell, a wing of the health department, has prepared a roadmap. According to its vision, all those born in and after 2007 cannot have access to any tobacco products across Karnataka.
“The legal age for tobacco use is 18. Those born in and after 2007 will attain 18 years by 2025. We want to build a society where tobacco products are inaccessible even after 18 years. For example, a 2007-born will attain 23 years in 2030, but he cannot purchase tobacco. So as years pass, the number of tobacco users will come down,” said a source, who is aware of the initiative.
The source said that the whole idea is to put an end to easy access to tobacco by children who experiment with it and get addicted. “Majority of the tobacco-users pick the habit in their childhood and teenage. As per the Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2, in Karnataka, 22.8 per cent of adults (approx 2.5 crore) use tobacco products. Youths are the wealth of our nation and this tobacco-free generation initiative is to address the root cause of the easy availability of tobacco to children,” the source said.
