Comment: Should tobacco be on display?

12:38pm Thursday 7th August 2008

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The public is being consulted on new proposals to restrict tobacco advertising. Proposals include removing branding and logos from packaging, a minimum pack size of 20 and banning displays of cigarettes in shops.

But will it work? Health reporter Siobhan Ryan seeks the views of two people on either side of the debate.

FOR

Kate Lawson, tobacco control co-ordinator at Brighton and Hove City Primary Care Trust

Although the trust has helped about 8,000 people in Brighton and Hove give up smoking in the past few years, there are still large numbers of young people taking up the habit.

This is partly why a consultation has been launched to find ways of making cigarettes less attractive to people and less accessible and why we are looking at things like removing vending machines.

Only 1% of cigarettes are bought from vending machines yet that figure rises to 17 per cent for young people.

It is difficult for pubs and clubs to monitor their use as they are self-service.

The choice is either to police them better by placing them next to a bar or get rid of them altogether.

Another option is to place cigarettes in plain packaging with a plain black font, making them less interesting.

With some brands it only takes a colour for someone to know what brand it is.

Other issues include having them sold from under the counter. Having them out of sight could help them be out of mind as well.

The converse argument is that will make them appear more interesting and exciting but it is something that we want to look at.

The other argument is to sell in packs of 20 instead of ten as most young people can only afford the smaller packets.

Will that put them off or will they club together to buy a larger packet? It is all part of the debate.

Personally, I would like to see a ban across the board.

If a young person sees their family smoking and then goes out and sees cigarettes advertised everywhere then they will eventually see it as a social norm.

That is something we are trying to avoid.

Although we support people when they want to give up smoking our main focus is to try to stop them smoking in the first place.

Research has shown that smoking is highest among those who earn the least – and so we will continue to target our efforts on those areas where there is higher deprivation.

Anything that can help someone avoid taking up smoking in the first place has to be welcome.

AGAINST

Mumtaz Manji, a former nurse, has worked at Boulevard News in Crawley for almost ten years

I am totally anti-smoking, but believe the measures being proposed are bad news for businesses and will not make any difference in the long term.

Cigarettes are one of the things newsagents are most associated with and they are an important part of our business.

We are already competing against big supermarkets and out-of-town stores and so we rely on passing trade.

The actual profit from one packet of cigarettes is not that high but people will come in for a packet and buy other things as well. It all adds up.

If people walk in and don’t see any signs for cigarettes they may assume we don’t sell them and look elsewhere.

I appreciate that what some people are trying to do is stop children from smoking but to be honest, taking cigarettes off the front counter and putting them underneath is not going to make any difference.

You only have to see how young people try to ask adults to buy cigarettes or alcohol for them to know they will always find a way.

If they really want to get hold of cigarettes then whether they are on display or not will not have any effect.

As a nurse I have done research into why people take up smoking and time after time it is down to parental influence and peer pressure.

If a young child has two parents who chain smoke openly in front of them then the chances are they are going to be interested themselves.

The real focus should be on educating and spelling out exactly what the dangers of smoking are and explain the rationale behind it. Then people will make their choices.

The only way to stop a person from smoking is if they really want to.

Personally, I don’t think selling cigarettes under the counter will stop young people smoking. It is the traders who will lose out and in the current economic climate we cannot afford to lose any more trade.

Tobacco is a legal product so why shouldn’t my adult customers see the range on offer and their prices?

What do you think? Tell us below.