A man is seen smoking a cigarette at a harbor in the Maldives on May 5, 2019. Sergi Reboredo/VWPics/AP Images

The Maldives has become the first country to impose a generational smoking ban – making smoking, buying and selling tobacco illegal for anyone born after January 1, 2007.

The ban took effect on Saturday in the South Asian archipelago, “marking a historic milestone in the nation’s efforts to protect public health and promote a tobacco-free generation,” said the country’s Ministry of Health.

This measure “makes the Maldives the first country in the world to enforce a nationwide generational tobacco ban,” it added.

Smoking causes more than seven million deaths globally each year, according to the World Health Organization . As of 2021, more than a quarter of the Maldives’ adu

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