LONDON: The minimum age for buying tobacco could be raised from 16 to 18 under plans being considered by Patricia Hewitt, the British Health Secretary.

Ministers are examining placing the sale of cigarettes on the same legal footing as alcohol, as a means of reducing teenage smoking, the Department of Health confirmed on Sunday.

The move would bring Britain into line with most of the United States and Europe, in which smoking is legal only from the age of 18. Spain recently became the latest country to raise the minimum age to 18.

The government also hopes that toughening the law on teenage smoking would appease anti-tobacco campaigners who have attacked its compromise on the proposed ban on smoking in public places.

Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, said last month he had considered resignation when ministers rejected his recommendation for a blanket ban, in favour of an exemption for pubs in which food is not served.

Firm proposals for raising the minimum age have yet to be fixed, but ministers are sympathetic to accepting an amendment to the Health Bill, which will implement the partial ban on smoking in the workplace.

Jeff Ennis, a Labour member of parliament who has drawn up a Private Member's Bill to raise the legal age for tobacco sales, said he was planning to introduce such an amendment next month.

About one in four 16 and 17-year-olds are estimated to smoke regularly, and up to 60 per cent of 16-year-olds are thought to have tried cigarettes. The tobacco industry makes 35 million pounds (US$ 60 million) a year in Britain from teenage smokers.

The current minimum age of 16 was introduced in 1908, and there is widespread support for change. A higher age is backed by trading standards officers, who say it would make it easier to prosecute retailers who break the law, and by schools, who are unable to prevent older pupils from buying cigarettes.

An ICM poll conducted last year also found the public was supportive, with 55 per cent favouring a rise to 21, well beyond the limit the government is prepared to consider.

Ennis said there was good evidence that raising the age to 18 would reduce teenage smoking. "There's evidence from places like Guernsey, where they raised the age to 18 in 1997," he said on Sky News.

"At that time the level of smoking among young children was exactly the same in Guernsey as in the rest of the UK. It's now half the level."

The move was welcomed by anti-tobacco groups, though they said the measure should not divert attention from the case for a blanket ban on smoking in public places.

Deborah Arnott, director of Action on Smoking and Health, said: "We do not oppose raising the age of sales; but it won't have a big impact unless it is combined with a wider policy to make smoking a less desirable activity.

"The best way to do this is a smoking ban in the workplace and all enclosed public places. The government won't be able to buy off Labour MPs by making these concessions."

Source: China Daily