Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Bill 2009

Each day another 450 young people across the UK begin smokingOn 27 January 2010 the Scottish Parliament passed the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services Scotland Bill, ending the display of tobacco in shops and banning cigarette vending machines.

Smoking remains the single largest preventable cause of cancer in Scotland, accounting for almost one in four of all deaths, causing tremendous suffering for individuals and families and placing an enormous burden on the NHS1. Smoking causes nine in ten cases of lung cancer. Lung cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers, and is the most common cause of cancer death in the UK. 

Smoking also increases the risk of over a dozen other cancers including cancers of the mouth, larynx (voice box), oesophagus (food pipe), liver, pancreas, stomach, kidney, bladder and cervix, as well as some types of leukaemia.

In 2005-06, 15,000 young Scots between the ages of 13 and 24 became smokers2, 15% of Scottish 15 year olds classify themselves as regular smokers, with girls more likely than boys to be smokers3. Over two thirds of smokers begin smoking before the age of 18, with less than one fifth beginning after the age of 20, and the younger a child begins smoking, the more likely they are to smoke more heavily into adulthood4.

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What did we ask for?

Cancer Research UK’s Out of Sight, Out of Mind campaign, launched last summer, calls for a comprehensive tobacco control strategy that will take action to:

  • close the loophole which allows tobacco to be displayed at the point of sale;
  • prohibit the sale of cigarettes from vending machines;
  • require the use of plain packaging for tobacco products (the power to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products is reserved to Westminster).

Our petition in support of these goals has received over 50,000 signatures and our campaigners emailed their MSPs to ask them to vote for the Bill.

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What is the evidence base?

Point of Sale Displays

Point of sale (PoS) displays are used to develop relationships between brands and customers and to deliberately increase the prominence of the packs themselves. Research into the impact of PoS displays by Professor Gerard Hastings, Director of Cancer Research UK’s Centre for Tobacco Control Research at the University of Stirling, has concluded:

  • International evidence suggests that removing packs from sight at PoS could reduce adolescents’ exposure to cigarette brand impressions in stores by as much as 83%. It would also help adults to quit.
  • Since the implementation of the Tobacco Advertising and Promotions Act (2003), PoS has become the most important method for marketing tobacco to young people. In 2006, almost half (46%) of UK teens were aware of tobacco marketing at PoS.
  • The odds of a young person professing an intention to smoke may increase by 35% with every brand that they can name as having seen advertised at PoS5.

Using data from the ongoing European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD), the Public Health Institute of Iceland (a statutory body of the Icelandic Government) also found that youth smoking rates fell significantly after that country removed PoS displays in 2001, dropping from 18.6% in 1999 to 13.6% in 2003 - twice the rate of decline compared to the previous four-year period. Similarly, in Canada where such legislation has now been implemented in nearly all provinces, surveys show that banning point of sale displays, as part of a range of tobacco control measures, has coincided with a fall in smoking prevalence rates amongst 15 to 19 year olds from 22% in 2002 to 15% in 20076.

Importantly, the ESPAD evidence from Iceland, which was gathered using a survey of all 10th graders in the country, contradicts a claim made by the Tobacco Retailers Alliance that youth smoking rates in Iceland were sustained or increased after PoS displays were removed. The Alliance’s claim was based on a survey size of less than 350 young people, and the Public Health Institute has sent a letter to the Alliance advising that the ESPAD survey gives a more accurate view.

Removing PoS displays of tobacco may also help those who are trying to quit smoking to avoid the impulse to smoke. A survey of smokers has found that almost 1 in 3 (31%) felt that the removal of PoS displays would help them to quit7.

Vending Machines

Vending machines are little used by adult smokers, but 10% of 13-15 year olds in Scotland say they have bought tobacco from vending machines8. The WHO recommends a complete ban on tobacco vending machines and 22 European countries, including France, Belgium and Norway do not allow such machines.

International Support

Recently agreed guidelines to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control define retail display, vending machines and tobacco packaging as forms of advertising and promotion and recommend that Parties to the FCTC, which include the UK, ban retail display and sale of tobacco products from vending machines and consider the adoption of plain packaging.

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Further information

Written evidence submitted to the Scottish Parliament Health and Sport Committee

Background documents

 

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References

  1. Health Scotland, ISD Scotland and ASH Scotland. An atlas of tobacco smoking in Scotland: A report presenting estimated smoking prevalence and smoking-attributable deaths within Scotland. NHS Scotland/Scottish Public Health Observatory. 2007.
  2. Scottish Public Health Observatory, Tobacco smoking in Scotland: an epidemiology briefing. Health Scotland, 2008.
  3. Maxwell, C., Kinver, A., Phelps, A. Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance use Survey (SALSUS) National Report: Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among 13 and 15 year olds in Scotland in 2006. ISD Scotland.
  4. Office for National Statistics. General Household Survey 2005 - Smoking and Drinking among adults 2005.
  5. Hastings G, et al. (2008). Point of Sale Display of Tobacco Products. The Centre for Tobacco Control.
  6. Canadian Tobacco Use Monitory Survey 2000 - 2007.
  7. Wakefield M. 'The effect of retail cigarette pack displays on impulse purchase. Addiction Journal, November 2007.
  8. Maxwell, C., Kinver, A., Phelps, A. Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance use Survey (SALSUS) National Report: Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among 13 and 15 year olds in Scotland in 2006. ISD Scotland.