The UK’s generational tobacco ban might not work. I’m supporting it anyway.
The UK’s generational tobacco ban might not work. I’m supporting it anyway.
英国的“代际禁烟令”或许行不通，但我依然支持它。
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As the parent of two little girls, I often think about how their childhood is different from mine. The seven-year-old is learning about AI at school. The five-year-old is given internet-based homework every week. And they are both absolutely repulsed by the idea of smoking. 执行摘要 作为两个小女孩的母亲，我经常思考她们的童年与我的有何不同。七岁的大女儿在学校学习人工智能，五岁的小女儿每周都有基于互联网的家庭作业。而且，她们两人都对吸烟这件事感到极其反感。
That was not the prevailing sentiment when I was young. My parents smoked. The customers at our family’s restaurant smoked. Cartoon characters smoked. My friends and I would buy little cigarette-box-shaped packets of sugary white sticks and pretend to smoke in the playground. Smoking was a central part of our culture. 在我年轻的时候，情况并非如此。我的父母抽烟，我家餐馆里的顾客抽烟，连卡通人物也抽烟。我和朋友们会买那种香烟盒形状的甜味白色棒棒糖，在操场上假装抽烟。吸烟曾是我们文化的核心部分。
Which is why the UK’s recent passing of a generational sales ban on tobacco products feels like such a big deal. As part of the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026, retailers are prohibited from selling tobacco products to anyone born after January 1, 2009, in perpetuity. It doesn’t matter when those people turn 18—or 38 or 68, for that matter. It will always be illegal to sell to anyone born after that date. 正因如此，英国近期通过的针对烟草制品的“代际销售禁令”显得意义重大。作为《2026年烟草与电子烟法案》的一部分，零售商被永久禁止向任何2009年1月1日之后出生的人出售烟草制品。无论这些人何时年满18岁、38岁还是68岁，向该日期之后出生的人出售烟草制品都将永远是非法的。
This is what’s described as an “endgame” approach. While many tobacco control strategies—such as taxation or gory imagery—aim to reduce consumption, policies like the UK’s are designed to eliminate it entirely. It’s a new approach, and no one knows whether it will work. 这被称为“终局”策略。虽然许多烟草控制策略（如征税或展示恐怖警示图片）旨在减少消费，但像英国这样的政策旨在彻底消除烟草消费。这是一种新方法，没人知道它是否会奏效。
The Maldives was the first country to implement a generational smoking ban, in November last year. It’s too soon to say how that has panned out. Nor do we know if these laws will even last. In 2022, New Zealand passed a similar generational sales ban as part of a broader anti-smoking law. But it was never enacted—the law was repealed by a new government in February 2024. 马尔代夫是第一个实施代际禁烟令的国家，时间是在去年11月。现在评价其成效还为时过早。我们也不知道这些法律能否持久。2022年，新西兰作为更广泛禁烟法的一部分，通过了类似的代际销售禁令。但该法案从未实施，并于2024年2月被新政府废除。
In the UK, both major parties support the ban. But Nigel Farage, whose right-wing party has seen a recent surge in support, has promised that “the generational smoking ban will not last long if Reform gets the chance to start rebuilding our mismanaged country.” 在英国，两大主要政党都支持这项禁令。但奈杰尔·法拉奇（Nigel Farage）——其领导的右翼政党近期支持率激增——承诺：“如果改革党有机会开始重建我们这个管理不善的国家，代际禁烟令将不会持续太久。”
Chris Bostic, an attorney and former policy director for the advocacy group Action on Smoking and Health, says he and his colleagues began promoting the idea of a generational ban in the United States 11 years ago. Back then, they struggled to win support, even from major health charities. “People said we were crazy … [and] that this was impossible,” he says. 倡导组织“吸烟与健康行动”（Action on Smoking and Health）的律师兼前政策总监克里斯·博斯蒂克（Chris Bostic）表示，他和同事在11年前就开始在美国推广代际禁令的想法。当时，他们很难获得支持，甚至连大型健康慈善机构也不支持。他说：“人们说我们疯了……（并认为）这根本不可能实现。”
Opponents argued that bans would infringe on personal freedoms. “The public health argument is: Well, what about freedom from addiction?” says Britta Matthes, a tobacco control researcher at the University of Bath in the UK. Most people who smoke began when they were teenagers, want to quit, and wish they’d never started. 反对者认为禁令会侵犯个人自由。英国巴斯大学的烟草控制研究员布丽塔·马特斯（Britta Matthes）说：“公共卫生的论点是：那么，免于成瘾的自由又该如何保障呢？”大多数吸烟者在青少年时期就开始吸烟，他们想要戒烟，并希望自己从未开始过。
Tobacco is arguably the most harmful consumer product of all time. It will kill half its users who don’t quit, according to the World Health Organization. It also kills people who don’t smoke. Of the 7 million who die from tobacco every year, 1.6 million are nonsmokers who were exposed to secondhand smoke, according to the WHO. 烟草可以说是史上危害最大的消费品。据世界卫生组织统计，如果不戒烟，烟草将杀死一半的使用者。它还会杀死不吸烟的人。据世卫组织数据，每年因烟草死亡的700万人中，有160万人是因接触二手烟而死亡的非吸烟者。
Generational sales bans are a long-term strategy that will only protect future smokers. Most experts agree that people who already smoke should be a main consideration for any policy, and that a multipronged approach is probably the best way to go. 代际销售禁令是一项长期策略，它只会保护未来的吸烟者。大多数专家认为，任何政策都应将现有吸烟者作为主要考虑对象，多管齐下的方法可能是最佳途径。
Janet Hoek at the University of Otago, who has explored tobacco control policies in New Zealand, believes that enforcing very low limits on nicotine levels and banning filters—an environmental scourge that does not make smoking safer, as many people believe—might be a “powerful combination,” for example. 奥塔哥大学的珍妮特·霍克（Janet Hoek）曾研究过新西兰的烟草控制政策，她认为，例如强制执行极低的尼古丁含量限制，并禁止使用过滤嘴（这是一种环境祸害，且并不像许多人认为的那样能让吸烟更安全），可能是一种“强有力的组合”。
But preventing teenagers from starting to smoke in the first place is an enticing prospect, even among the majority of people who smoke. And it’s starting to look a lot less radical. The US has quietly been making progress on a smaller scale. Since 2021, Brookline, a town in the Boston area, has banned the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after January 1, 2000. 但从源头上防止青少年开始吸烟是一个诱人的前景，即使在大多数吸烟者看来也是如此。而且，这看起来已经不再那么激进。美国已经在小范围内悄然取得了进展。自2021年以来，波士顿地区的布鲁克莱恩镇（Brookline）已禁止向任何2000年1月1日之后出生的人出售烟草制品。
The idea has spread. Today there are 23 towns in Massachusetts with similar bans, says Bostic. Nine towns across Minnesota, New York, and California have implemented other endgame policies. The UK law has normalized the idea more than ever, he adds. His colleagues are already fielding calls from health agencies around the world. “People [are] saying, Wow I can’t believe the UK just did this—can we do this here?” he says. 这个想法已经传播开来。博斯蒂克说，如今马萨诸塞州有23个城镇实施了类似的禁令。明尼苏达州、纽约州和加利福尼亚州的9个城镇也实施了其他终局政策。他补充说，英国的法律使这一理念比以往任何时候都更加常态化。他的同事们已经接到了来自世界各地卫生机构的咨询电话。他说：“人们都在说，哇，真不敢相信英国竟然真的这么做了——我们这里能效仿吗？”
Norms change. Like many other millennials, I vividly remember my first night out after a ban on indoor smoking took effect. My clothes didn’t stink! My hair still felt clean! And my throat wasn’t scratchy the next morning! Now that’s just normal. I hope a tobacco-free world can be the new normal for my kids. 规范是会改变的。像许多其他千禧一代一样，我清楚地记得室内禁烟令生效后我第一次外出的夜晚。我的衣服没有臭味！我的头发依然清爽！第二天早上我的喉咙也不再干痒！现在，这已是常态。我希望一个无烟世界能成为我孩子们的新常态。