Bumping the legal age to buy cigarettes to 21 'would slash smoking rates'

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The legal smoking age should be increased from 18 to 21 to help create a 'smoke-free generation', a leading lung doctor has said.

Dr Nicholas Hopkinson, a respiratory specialist at Imperial College London, said such a move would have a major health impact and would be popular with the public.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, Dr Hopkinson said young children are being influenced by older teenagers.

'Smoking is a contagious habit, transmitted by peers,' he said.

'The higher the proportion of a child's friends who smoke, the more likely they are themselves to smoke.

'The age increase will protect younger children from exposure to older pupils in school who smoke and whose behaviour they may want to imitate.

'The gap will also remove a potential source of supply within schools.' 

The smoking rate in the UK has fallen to second-lowest in Europe in recent years but experts are keen to reduce the toll of smoking further.

Dr Hopkinson added: 'The tobacco industry fears this policy. Philip Morris has stated that raising the legal minimum age for

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