Tobacco sales to those born after year 2000 may be banned in Oz in strict anti-smoking drive

Sydney, Aug 22 (ANI): A legislative council in Tasmania, Australia, has backed a motion for banning cigarette sales to anyone born after the year 2000.

The move by the upper house in Tasmania would begin taking effect once people born in 2000 turned 18, which would effectively start phasing out tobacco sales from 2018.

Independent MP Ivan Dean said the move would stop young people from taking up the habit.

"This would mean that we would have a generation of people not exposed to tobacco products," News.com.au quoted Dean, as saying.

The move comes less than a week after the Australian High Court ruled in favour of the federal government's introduction of plain packaging for cigarettes.

British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International, Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco had lost a landmark case to the Australian Government, favouring the 'plain green box' packing of cigarettes to deter smokers. (ANI)