Editorial: Lower levels of smoking can be achieved without a full ban on cigarettes

​​Amidst all the bad and concerning news that there is from home and abroad, this newspaper also reports on some much more uplifting developments.

Perhaps the most obvious example of human progress in recent decades is the way in which road deaths have been slashed. In the 1960s and 70s almost 300 people were typically killed in Northern Ireland in traffic accidents. Now that figure is closer to 60 or 70 deaths annually, despite vehicle movements having more than doubled. You are far, far less likely to die in such a tragedy than 50 years ago.

Another success area is in the deadly habit of smoking, the incidence of which has plunged in recent decades. The UK, where under 20% of the population smokes, has one of the lowest smoking rates in the western world. Northern Ireland is higher than the UK average and still above 20%. In America, France and Germany a quarter of people smoke. But these figures are a marked improvement on the past, when smoking levels were akin to parts of the world today, with half or more of adults partaking.

By some estimates, around half of smokers ultimately die from their habit, due to heart and lung problems. For that reason attitudes to smoking have steadily changed, from banning advertising to prohibiting it in the work place. These controversial measures have worked.

Now Rishi Sunak is reported to be considering a plan that would effectively ban cigarettes for the next generation by gradually increasing the legal age for it. Age increases might be a good idea up to a point but a total ban should be resisted. It would deny adults choice to make their own decisions and it might make smoking illicit and glamorous.

In the US state of Utah fewer than one adult in 10 smokes without a ban. This should be the aim – to continue to cut legal smoking.