Seventy years ago, the British government recognised that smoking caused lung cancer, thanks to a breakthrough in medical science. In an interview to mark the anniversary, Sir Richard Peto, a pioneer in this area, highlighted one way in which the discovery was significant. It led, he said, to a boost for public health comparable with 19th-century improvements in sewerage and water quality.
The shift in attitudes to smoking did not happen suddenly. The tobacco and vapes bill championed by Rishi Sunak, which fell when he called an election, was the culmination of a decades-long process. If the law is resurrected by the next government – as seems likely given the inclusion of similar measures in Labour’s manifesto – it will become illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born since 2009, and vapes will be more tightly controlled.
