Sales curb ‘may stop young smoking’

BANNING tobacco sales near schools and playgrounds across Scotland would cut the number of premises able to sell these products by more than 70%, according to a new study.

Researchers from Glasgow and Edinburgh universities teamed up to examine ways of reducing the provision of cigarettes and similar products in Scotland.

They created virtual maps of the country’s 9,030 registered tobacco retailers and examined how 12 different policies would affect their numbers.

These included restricting the type of shops allowed to sell tobacco, limiting areas where it can be sold or capping retailer numbers.

Stopping tobacco sales within 300 metres of child spaces, including schools, playgrounds and playing fields, would lead to a 70.7% cut in the number of licensed outlets selling tobacco, researchers found.

They said this could aid efforts to prevent young people starting to smoke.

The researchers also examined how each approach would affect existing inequalities in tobacco availability, with previous studies showing this was disproportionately higher in more deprived areas of Scotland than wealthier areas.

Banning sales near child spaces could reduce these inequalities, they said, in addition to stopping sales in small local shops or restricting sales to supermarkets.

The study, published in the journal Tobacco Control, was funded by Cancer Research UK.