Banning the sale of tobacco to people born between 2006 and 2010 could prevent around 1.2 million deaths from lung cancer by the end of the century, said a modelling study released yesterday.

Smoking is responsible for roughly 85 percent of all cases of lung cancer, the deadliest cancer worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

If current trends continue, there will be nearly three million lung cancer deaths among people born from 2006 to 2010, said the new study from the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).