Every day 40 children and young people in Denmark start smoking and eight out ten Danes started smoking before they turned 18. Unfortunately, these facts are not news. If the statistic is to change, we have to think differently. This is what the Danish Cancer Society and the Danish foundation TrygFonden are doing with their partnership “Smoke-free Future”.

Smoke-free Future was launched on World No Tobacco Day on the 31st May 2017. Its overall objective is that by 2030 no children and young people smoke and fewer than 5% of the adult population smoke.

Our main focus is children and young people. We are working to achieve a new smoke-free norm, where tobacco is neither visible, nor attractive nor easily accessible. Furthermore, we want to influence the structural framework to ensure that our children become the first genera-tion who is smoke-free.

How will we achieve this? One of the great ideas behind Smoke-free Future is to involve many different parties in making our vision of a smoke-free future a reality. We can’t do it alone, which is why we need a wide range of partners who can get involved and contribute with initiatives ranging from communicating our message on digital platforms to introducing changes to the structural framework, such as smoke-free school hours.

The parties involved have different backgrounds and include municipalities, government min-istries, administrative regions, patient associations, schools and businesses.

All parties have signed a partnership statement supporting the main messages of Smoke-free Future: Children and young people have a right to grow up without tobacco smoke and to-gether we take responsibility for making this possible. Together we will create a smoke-free future in which more children and young people can live a healthy and happy life. Together we will ensure that fewer people smoke, so fewer people become ill from tobacco smoke.

Smoke-free Future has just celebrated its one-year anniversary. We’ve been able to do this with over 72 partners – and more are going to join.