Thursday, March 21, 2013

Bloomberg's Plan Challenges Tobacco Industry



Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York City came this week with a new plan to ban tobacco products from display in stores. Smoking displays are considered to be a bad example for young people who may acquire this habit. Several countries banned cigarettes from displays in the stores and this prevents youth from buying them.

Studies have shown that keeping cigarettes displays out of children helps to restrain them from smoking and besides this helps individuals who are trying to quit. A study that was published in January in Pediatrics magazine showed that teenagers were less likely to buy cigarettes if they shopped in stores where tobacco products were not displayed. In the USA tobacco products advertising is widely spread in ordinary retail stores and open displays of cigarettes stimulate unplanned purchases.

Kerry M. Schneider, key staff attorney for the Center for Public Health and Tobacco Policy at New England Law in Boston, said that such countries as Canada, Ireland and New Zealand have brought into action bans and it has little impact to tobacco sales at stores. It greatly helped to reduce the number of smokers among youth.

The New York city’s ban on smoking in such public places as restaurants and bars resulted in the state’s ban. Thus in 2011, the city became the largest municipality where smoking is prohibited in parks and beaches.

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