Healthcare News – Bring Back Smoking Freedom

Ireland defies EU law and “Tobacco 21” settlement by insisiting on a generational tobacco purchase ban

24 Jul 20263 Aug 2026

From 2027, you will have to be at least 21 years old to purchase tobacco in the Republic of Ireland. This is the new legislation that the seperatist independent state…

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More people in the UK vape than smoke for the first time

13 Nov 202513 Nov 2025

Britain is often known, perhaps even notoriously, for its anti-normal ways of doing things, such as driving on the left side of the road and using an outstanding system of…

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Smokers’ rights group FOREST criticises beach and park smoking ban enacted in France

3 Jul 20251 Aug 2025

There is no justification for banning smoking in outdoor public places because there is no evidence that smoking in the open air represents a risk to anyone else’s health, including…

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Hospital in England displays green instead of red no smoking sign near traffic lights!

21 Apr 20254 May 2025

This is what I have come across while smoking along and wearing the union jack on my T-shirt. In the pictures we can see the "smoking allowed" green sign with…

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Expert opinions opposing hospital grounds comprehensive smoking bans

21 Nov 202425 Apr 2025

In Scotland, and as of late 2022, comprehensive hospital grounds smoking bans include the area outside each hospital at a radius of 15 metres out of the hospital, which could…

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“Tobacco 21” legislation approved by Irish parliament and passed as law

14 Nov 202414 Nov 2024

Ireland has become the first EU country to set and raise the minimum age required to buy tobacco to the age of self-guardianship of 21 from the age of legal…

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‘Tobacco and Vapes’ bill introduced in parliament on Guy Fawkes Day 2024

5 Nov 20245 May 2025

The revised version of the previously defunct tobacco and vapes bill by the Labour government will be introduced in parliament today Tuesday the 5th of November ironically coinciding with Guy…

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Tobacco and Vapes Bill to be passed from parliament before Christmas

31 Oct 20243 Nov 2024

After intense protest and intense negative reactions on behalf of the hospitality sector also consisting of venue and bar/pub and club and restaurant owners, the outdoor smoking bans intended by…

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European Commission imitating Labour government’s proposed outdoor smoking bans

21 Sep 202421 Sep 2024

The European Commission has announced plans to implement outdoor smoking bans across countries of the European Union that will also include bans on the use of electronic devices like Heat-Not-Burn…

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Minimum age to buy tobacco becomes 21 in Indonesia where children were allowed to smoke!

13 Aug 202420 Oct 2024

President Joko Widodo of Indonesia signed new legislation setting the minimum age for buying tobacco to 21 years from 18 years as was set in 2020, a year before which the…

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Australian Greens achieve compromising vape legalisation

8 Jul 20248 Jul 2024

The Green Party in Australia passed an amendment to the law banning e-cigarettes and their use without a doctor's prescription, and from October e-cigarettes whose sale and use without a…

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Rishi Sunak’s gradual smoking ban shelved for the elections

24 May 202430 May 2024

The Prime Minister of Britain Rishi Sunak announced that the general elections at the end of the five-year term will be held on Thursday, the 4th of July, 2024, as a…

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Irish parliament will decide if tobacco is for over 21’s

16 May 202421 Jun 2024

Ireland is close to becoming the first European Union country to raise the minimum age required to buy tobacco above 18 years of legal responsibility for its citizens. According to…

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Tobacco and Vapes bill committee receives evidence and amendment prepositions from 34 stakeholders

4 May 20249 May 2024

The Tobacco and Vapes bill committee, the parliamentary committee that will review evidence and amendments to the Tobacco and Vapes bill has been formed on the 24th of April, consisting…

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The Tobacco and Vapes bill committee has been set up

28 Apr 20245 May 2024

The consistency of the Tobacco and Vapes bill committee has been published by the government, where there are 10 sitting Conservative MPs, 6 Labour MPs and 1 MP from the…

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Hazel Cheeseman appointed to lead Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)

26 Apr 202426 Apr 2024

Following the announcement that the leader of Action on Smoking and Health Deborah Arnott is set to retire in September, the organisation's deputy leader and policy director Hazel Cheeseman has…

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Travelling maximum limit of 1 cigarette carton lifted within the EU

11 Apr 2024

The permitted limit for carrying tobacco products of maximum 1 carton of 200 cigarettes for personal use by travellers across borders within the EU was lifted on the 29th of…

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Full cannabis decriminalisation effective in Germany from the first of April 2024

3 Apr 20243 Apr 2024

As has been last year's expectation of recent developments, cannabis has been fully and officially decriminalized in the Federal Republic of Germany where it is also partially legalized. As of…

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Smoking is quit voluntarily rather than by force according to New Zealand’s associate health secretary

16 Mar 202416 Mar 2024

New Zealand's parliament (the New Zealand House of Representatives) began the first reading of the "Smoke-Free Environment and Regulated Products Amendment Act" on February 27, which aims to repeal the…

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Smoking ban “the only measure that can give the population more years of life” according to Spain’s health minister

24 Feb 2024

"We must look at the law again because we cannot turn our backs on the only measure that can give the population more years of life and a better quality…

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ASH director Deborah Arnott to retire in September

15 Feb 202424 Mar 2024

Britain's largest anti-smoking organisation, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), has announced that its president and director, Deborah Arnott, will retire at the end of September this year after serving…

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Conservative candidate for Epson condemns the proposed adult smoking prohibition in Pop-Con event

8 Feb 202423 Mar 2024

Now ladies and gentlemen it gives me great pleasure we're going to hear from a range of voices from the Conservative party present, but here's a voice from the Conservative…

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Antismoking WHO conference postponed to February 2024

16 Dec 202318 Mar 2024

The 10th Conference of Parties on tobacco control, a biennial conference held by the World Health Organisation, pestering smokers and the rest of the world by making life more difficult,…

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The WHO refuses to discuss tobacco harm reduction in forthcoming antismoking conference

13 Oct 202313 Oct 2023

The WHO is excluding discussion on tobacco harm reduction from happening in its forthcoming 10th antismoking conference to be held in Panama City between the 20th and 25th of November,…

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Rishi Sunak professionally engaged with the Israeli Hamas war for planning generational endgame for smoking

10 Oct 202311 Oct 2023

British prime minister Rishi Sunak is professionally and fully engaged with the war that broke out in Israel between the Israelis and Palestinian Hamas militants, more than it would take…

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Antismoking proponents convince Rishi Sunak to adopt generational endgame for tobacco

4 Oct 20235 Oct 2023

At the annual conference of the Conservative Party in the city of Manchester this year, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speculated that most people who smoke take it up at…

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Indoor smoking ban spoiling student life of indoor university campus in Northern Greece

18 Sep 202318 Nov 2024

The University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Northern Greece, a business administration, marketing and computer science school, was founded in 1930 as an industrial school and was converted and…

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Air pollution proven to be worse for public health than smoking

30 Aug 202323 Mar 2024

New research has shown that air pollution that is residual in today's skies is more damaging to public health than smoking and alcohol consumption, with the greatest risk concentrated in…

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Brunel University in London says that the NHS would save £500 million if smokers converted to vaping

24 Aug 202311 Sep 2023

Brunel University in West London says that the NHS would save over £500 million if half of smokers converted to vaping also bringing up data for 10% of them. Read…

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Biden will veto law preventing the FDA from banning menthol cigarettes

11 Aug 202311 Aug 2023

The Biden administration has opposed a bill that would prevent the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from banning menthol in cigarettes. In its draft of the Fiscal Year 2024…

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The Queen of Denmark Margrethe has quit smoking at her current age of 83

21 Jun 202322 Jun 2023

Queen Margrethe of Denmark quit smoking at the age of 83, following the advice of her doctors before undergoing back surgery last February to avoid post-operative complications. The Queen of…

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FOREST satisfied that minimum age requirement to buy tobacco will not incrementally increase by one year every year

7 May 20237 May 2023

Smokers’ rights association FOREST expressed its chairman’s satisfaction from the recent announcements made from the deputy Secretary of State for Health Neil O'Brien, in the context of eliminating smoking below…

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US smoking rates went up in 2019 and 2021, but down in this and other recent years

1 May 202310 May 2023

The decline in smoking rates and a simultaneous rise in the use of electronic alternatives continues in the United States, where it was recorded for 2022 that only 11.3% of…

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The world’s first smokers’ rights political party comes from Greece

28 Apr 202330 May 2023

The Κ.Ο.Τ.Ε.Σ. party in Greece is the first smokers' rights political party that has run at least twice in the general elections, in 2009 in the first Athens Constituency when…

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The British Health Minister WILL NOT increase the minimum age requirement to buy tobacco by one year every year

11 Apr 20237 May 2023

A new initiative by Britain's Department of Health in partnership with public health, called Swap to Stop, is distributing e-cigarettes to 1 million smokers to help them quit. The exact…

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UK government taking additional law enforcement action on illegal underage sales of disposable vapes

10 Apr 202310 Apr 2023

The government is taking additional law enforcement action to ensure that the law that allows vaping and smoking to be sold exclusively to adults over 18 is followed by tillkeepers…

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FOREST Chairman accuses Chancellor of being “heartless and cruel” to update cigarette prices with economic crisis inflation

20 Mar 202320 Mar 2023

The president of the British smoking association FOREST called England's finance minister Jeremy Hunt heartless and cruel after his action to update the pricing and taxation of tobacco products in…

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Scottish hospital-range smoking ban not followed by those who are most in need

1 Feb 202311 Mar 2023

The ban on smoking within range of 15 metres of all indoor and outdoor Scottish hospital grounds that was decided and imposed by the Nicola Sturgeon government last September 2022…

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Republicans scrap Nancy Pelosi’s 2007 Capitol smoking ban

19 Jan 202323 May 2023

With Republicans in control of the US House of Representatives, smoking has once again become possible inside the Capitol building, another victory for Democracy in the land of the free,…