On July 14, 2025, I had the pleasure of joining local advocates at the hearing of the Joint Committee on Public Health at the Massachusetts Statehouse. On the docket: a state Nicotine-Free Generation law (House version; Senate version). The bill would prohibit the sale of [certain – House version] tobacco products to persons born on or after January 1, 2006. The room was packed; people not just standing but sitting in the aisles. A few retailers had shown up to argue against, but they were far outnumbered by supporters, including doctors, youth, cancer survivors and people who had lost loved ones to cancer.
I can’t predict with accuracy the future of the bills (House and Senate). If the Public Health Committee approves, they will be sent to the Ways and Means committee, and then hopefully to the full chambers. Cutting edge bills like this often fail in their first year, but if they do, we will build on the momentum next year, and meanwhile encourage more towns to pass their own NFG laws (17 and counting).
Watch the hearing testimonies and read my testimony below.
Testimony from Chris Bostic, Policy Director for ASH
Good afternoon, and many thanks to the Joint Committee for this time. I am testifying in support of H2562/S1568, An Act to create a nicotine free generation.
My name is Chris Bostic. I am the policy director for Action on Smoking and Health, or ASH, based in Washington DC but working globally to end the tobacco epidemic. I also chair the U.S. and global steering committees for Project Sunset, a campaign to phase out the sale of commercial tobacco products.
My main purpose in being here is to reassure the Joint Committee that the nicotine-free generation concept is neither new nor radical. As it has been several times in the past, Massachusetts is at the forefront of an important public health advancement, but it is not alone.
The birthdate-based tobacco sales phaseout is a reasonable solution to a global conundrum. We have a product that needs to be removed from the market, but at the same time there are over a billion people who are already addicted to that product.
Nicotine-Free Generation policies are part of a larger movement called tobacco endgame. While towns in Massachusetts are leading the charge, six other U.S. jurisdictions have also implemented endgame measures, including two towns in California that have banned tobacco sales outright, and three towns in Minnesota and one in New York that have laws phasing out tobacco retail licensing. The California Department of Public Health has made tobacco endgame a priority.
Outside the U.S., tobacco-free generation policies have been introduced or passed in the Philippines, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Australia and the United Kingdom. On July 1st, the country of Maldives implemented TFG, and it is expected to pass this year in the United Kingdom and South Australia. Three weeks ago, the European Commission announced funding for tobacco endgame policies throughout the European Union.
Endgame has also arrived at the international treaty level. The last Conference of the Parties of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control established an Expert Group to look at Forward-Looking Measures, including endgame policies. The report of that expert group will be published in September and considered at the next COP in November.
The global public health community embraced tobacco endgame at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in 2018 by adopting the Cape Town Declaration on Human Rights and a Tobacco-Free World. The declaration made clear that the marketing of tobacco products is a violation of basic human rights, and that governments have a duty, not just a right, to end the tobacco epidemic.
When my organization began pushing tobacco endgame more than 10 years ago, it was considered a fringe issue. That is no longer the case. Endgame is here, both globally and in this room. We all envision a world free from the disease and death caused by tobacco. Massachusetts has been a global leader on public health issues, and it has the opportunity to be so again.
Thank you.