A simple change in the minimum smoking age could have huge public health benefits, according to one researcher at UNBC's Northern Medical Program.
Russ Callaghan, a professor at UNBC, believes that raising the legal age of smoking to 21 could result in profound improvements in public health in Canada and the US. He has co-published a research paper which suggests this change could significantly reduce the ranks of daily smokers. Callaghan believes that this research may help inform efforts of federal health authorities who are attempting wean Canadians off cigarettes on a mass scale.
While the opioid epidemic has rightly occupied media headlines for over a year-and-a-half, Health Canada has estimated smoking is responsible for far more fatalities. Nationally, smoking is responsible for 37,000 premature deaths and costs taxpayers $18.7 billion each year.
"If you think about the overall burden, there isn't anything bigger in terms of a public health problem than smoking," Callaghan said.
The federal government has set a goal to reduce commercial tobacco use to 5 per cent of the population by 2035. According to Statistics Canada, 16.9 per cent of Canadians aged 12 or older currently smoke either daily or occasionally.
Callaghan acknowledges that behavioural restrictions like this may be unpopular amongst millenials.
"A lot of my students say that these laws are archaic and they don't have any impact whatsoever," Callaghan said.
"They usually cite the evidence that 'I could go get alcohol anytime I want or tobacco.'"
Prior to conducting this study, Callaghan was surprised to find that research on the effectiveness of minimum age laws was almost non-existent.
"There's surprisingly little research on how this policy works. And there isn't any research on Canada," he said.
His study, published last month in the scholarly journal Tobacco Control, demonstrates that the consumption of current or daily smokers, and the number of current and daily smokers both jump significantly once these individuals reach the legal smoking age. Callaghan's research, which drew upon data collected from 90,000 people aged 14-22 over a fourteen-year period, focused on smoking data in the exact month both before and after individuals reached the legal smoking age.
"What you could see is the prevalence climbing and then as soon as people are released from these age restrictions in the population, the smoking prevalence goes up dramatically," Callaghan said.
"So it's fairly good evidence that these laws, they restrict smoking behaviour in people under the restrictions and as soon as these laws are released then you have people picking up smoking."
Callaghan believes most individuals would make more informed, healthier choices by the age of 21 compared to 18 or 19, the legal age allowed in all provinces in Canada.
Several US states passed laws in 2017 raising their legal age to buy cigarettes to 21. Oregon, the most recent to do so, saw the law go into effect on January 1st of this year.
