Norwegians Want to Increase Age Limit for Smoking Ban

Source from:  The Nordic Page 02/08/2014

In the last revision of the Tobacco Act LHL said that the age limit should be increased to 20 years. Stortinget (Parliament) chose to keep the age limit at 18 years. The survey shows that politicians are out of step with public opinion, says General Secretary Frode Jahren LHL to VG.

He says raising the age limit is an important measure to prevent several to start smoking.

We believe this is an important measure. The longer the young stay away from smoking, the less likely they begin, says Jahren.

Wednesday it was announced that while tobacco use in the general goes down, the proportion of young people who smoke has increased over the last five years.

In 2013, 32 percent of the population aged 16-74 years smoke in Norway, according to the latest figures from Statistisk sentralbyrå. There has been a steady decline over the past five years, from 36 percent tobacco users in 2008.

Among young people, 7 percent said they smoke daily, while 15 percent smoke occasionally. Enditem