Health chiefs plead retention of tobacco display ban

Once again, health experts have taken to the broadsheets (i.e. written to The Guardian) to plead their case that abandoning the tobacco display ban in England will put children's health at risk. Like Peter Kellner in his Open Letter to Vince Cable in the New Statesman a couple of weeks ago, they suggest that the government must choose between 'the tobacco lobby' and 'the British people'. In the Politics column of The Guardian, a Lib Dem councillor suggests rather dismissively that shopkeepers have naively 'fallen for the industry spin'.

Personally I feel that shopkeepers are better equipped to understand the tobacco trade than the authors of the Guardian letter, and the dichotomy of tobacco lobby versus British people is a false one.

The Grocer also speculates: Tobacco display ban to be delayed. A delay would be good, but evidence that the display ban would fundamentally affect youth smoking is not substantiated.

An announcement from the Health Secretary is awaited.

Trade warns of more illegal tobacco trading if display ban goes ahead

The daily news bulletin of ASH Scotland on Wednesday included several links to Scottish papers and the trade press reporting the warnings of the trade that the display ban will cause smuggling to grow. A further version of the story appeared yesterday south of the border.

Sheila Duffy can't see the problem with the display ban:

Throughout the debate over removing tobacco displays, a measure intended to protect young people from tobacco promotion, the tobacco industry has tried to divert attention away from the important health issues at stake by exaggerating fears based on unfounded claims.

The reality is that there is no substance to these claims. There is no reason to think that adult smokers who currently buy their product legally from responsible retailers will suddenly switch to illegal sources because the product is no longer on display. Smokers will be able to go on buying what they normally buy, where they normally buy it. Why would they suddenly go somewhere else?

What about price?

'Putting tobacco under the counter will make smokers feel like they’re doing something illegal when they buy tobacco from a shop' [says a shopkeeper]. 'If they think that, they might as well get it from a smuggler who sells it at half the price I can.'

There's also the stigma and the sheer bloody inconvenience, to say nothing of the fact that tobacco sales will slow down queues, to the (real or imagined) annoyance of other shoppers.

The English version of the story states that Andrew Lansley, Health Secretary, has been swayed by a rise in smoking rates in Canada since the display ban was introduced there. I hope the Scottish Health & Sport Committee is paying attention!

Sheila's attitude to the retail trade is extraordinary. It is part of her faith that tobacconists, who sell tobacco every day for many more hours every day than she spends working for ASH Scotland, rely completely on the manufacturers for knowledge of the tobacco trade. As for this:

This [the idea that a ban on displays would encourage the black market] looks to me like a classic case of tobacco industry smoke and mirrors. They spread misinformation and alarm amongst retailers, survey the concerns they create, and present the results as if they were genuine evidence.

A direct description of the way the scare of Third Hand Smoke was created.