Brookline, Massachusetts and New Zealand have implemented laws to create “Tobacco-Free Generations.”

The phrase tobacco free generation is used widely in public health campaigns and it often has different meanings. Some use it to describe a social movement that encourages young people not to smoke and to get involved in tobacco control efforts.

However, “Tobacco-Free Generation” – or TFG – is a unique concept that refers to barring the sale of tobacco to anyone born after a certain date.

Essentially, the age to buy tobacco products will just keep increasing every day.

For example, in Brookline, no one born this century can be sold tobacco. This means that retailers cannot sell tobacco to people that turned 23 this year. As those same people turn 24 next year, they will still be denied sales, and so forth.

The TFG concept allows current adults who smoke to keep buying tobacco products, but it will prevent tobacco addiction from spreading to the next generation.

Tobacco-Free Generation is sometimes called Nicotine-Free Generation (when the sales ban includes all nicotine products other than approved nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) drugs) or Smoke-Free Generation (when the ban includes only combustible tobacco products).

Balanga City in the Philippines was the first jurisdiction in the world to pass a TFG law. However, the law has not been implemented due to an ongoing tobacco industry lawsuit.

New Zealand set a birth date of January 1, 2009, which means that it won’t truly take effect – i.e., effectively raise the minimum age – until 2027.

The British Prime Minister has proposed following New Zealand’s lead.