News & Star Tuesday, June 2, 2009 27www.newsandstar.co.uk 99
Educating your kids
about the evil weed
A
staggering 450 children
start smoking every day
in the UK. So how do
you make sure yours
isn't one of them?
One major route is through
reducing or eliminating tobacco
advertising and displays.
While most forms of tobacco
advertising are now banned in
the UK, there are limited
exemptions, including displays at
the point of sale in shops.
Research shows that such
displays have a direct impact on
young people's smoking and a
new study by Cancer Research
UK has found that nearly two
thirds (64 per cent) of 11 to 16-
year-olds agree cigarettes should
be put out of sight in shops.
The Government intends to do
just that, and last month the
House of Lords voted to support
its proposal to ban tobacco
displays in shops.
The ban will be phased in, so
larger retailers such as
supermarkets will have to
remove tobacco products from
display by 2011, and smaller
shops by 2013.
It's a move that couldn't come
soon enough for Cancer Research
UK's chief executive, Harpal
Kumar.
He says: "Tobacco marketing
deliberately tries to build a
relationship with potential new
young smokers.
"Half of all long-term smokers
will die from cancer or other
smoking-related diseases � that's
why we want to make smoking
history for our children."
Last summer, the charity
launched a campaign calling on
the Government to prevent
tobacco being displayed at the
point of sale, stop the sale of
cigarettes from vending
machines, and insist on plain
packaging for tobacco products.
Professor John Britton,
director of the UK Centre for
Tobacco Control Studies, stresses
that such measures, no matter
how small their effect, are vital.
"While some things may have a
relatively small impact on the
number of children who smoke,
in any battle you take the gains
where you can get them.
"Once the smoking addiction is
established, it's extremely
difficult to break, so preventing it
is a crucial priority.
"That's why any opportunity,
no matter how small the impact �
such as removing tobacco
products from display in shops �
has to be seized."
Britton says removing
cigarette displays in shops is
"common sense", as existing
adult smokers already know
where they can buy cigarettes,
and can ask for them.
"There is no need at all to
display the products to existing
users.
"The gantries that are up in
shops are by no stretch of the
imagination anything other than
a huge advert for tobacco.
"It's complete common sense to
take displays of a product which
is extremely addictive and lethal
out of sight from children."
Certainly, other countries that
have banned cigarette displays �
such as Iceland and Canada �
have seen smoking among young
people drop by around a tenth.
However, Britton stresses that
removing cigarette displays is
just one of several steps that need
to be taken "if we want to be
serious about preventing this
generation of children growing
up to be addicted to tobacco".
Other important measures, he
says, include increasing the price
of cigarettes, reducing indirect
promotion such as smoking in
films, and maintaining and
increasing the number of smoke-
free areas.
Britton says the introduction of
the ban on smoking in enclosed
public places, which came into
force in 2007 in England, Wales
and Northern Ireland, and 2006
in Scotland, has helped reduce
the proportion of 11 to 15-year-old
smokers from 9 per cent to 6 per
cent.
"It's a big move in the right
direction, and I suspect there's
been a large impact from the
smoking ban," he says.
"Children no longer walk into
indoor premises where adults
are, see them smoking and think
it's something they'd like to do.
"From a very early age,
children are brought up to
understand that cigarettes are a
normal part of adult life, and
that's wrong.
"The evidence is very clear
that the most effective way to
reduce the prevalence of smoking
in young people is to make it less
attractive and obvious as an
adult behaviour."
B
ut youngsters who are
still attracted to
smoking need to get hold
of cigarettes � and all too
often they get them from vending
machines.
Those vending machines are
something that health
campaigners including Action on
Smoking and Health (ASH) want
banned, just like cigarette
displays. ASH spokeswoman
Amanda Sandford points out that
research shows cigarette vending
machines are rarely used by
adult smokers, but are one of the
main sources of cigarettes for
children.
"Our view is that this easy
source of cigarettes for children
should be closed off, to make it
much harder for children to get
them.
"The vast majority of
shopkeepers are law-abiding and
they do ask for ID when they sell
cigarettes, so it's harder for
children to get them in shops.
"Having a ban on vending
machines would certainly help to
reduce the easy access that
children have to cigarettes."
Sandford says another way of
helping prevent young people
smoking is by parents not
smoking themselves, and
conveying strong anti-smoking
messages to their children.
"The key for parents is to warn
their children about the dangers
of smoking, and talk to them
about it at quite an early age.
"Children learn much of their
behaviour from their parents,
and if parents smoke, a child is
two or three times more likely to
smoke themselves.
"One of the best ways of
discouraging children from
smoking is for parents to quit, so
children can see for themselves
the benefits of stopping
smoking."
She says that even if parents
are non-smokers, they need to
make it clear to their children
that they disapprove of smoking,
and how important it is that they
don't smoke.
"If they're relaxed about it,
then the children don't pick up
the message that it's an
extremely hazardous thing to
do."
As well as warning children
about the health problems
smoking can cause, Sandford
says parents should mention the
cost, how it can make breath and
clothes smell, and even the
environmental impact of
cigarettes through deforestation
during tobacco cultivation,
pollution and so on.
"Explain it in a real-life
context, because saying that it's
bad for your health doesn't
always wash with kids, partly
because the health impact of
smoking takes so long to develop.
"Making it more relevant to
children is vital to their
education about smoking."
450 children start smoking every day, with potentially deadly results
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Legislation: Soon shops will be banned from displaying tobacco products on their shelves

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