Doctors call on MPs to vote for tobacco display ban in Health Bill

Doctors and health charities are calling on MPs to ban the display of tobacco products in shops across England. The controversial measure, contained in the Health Bill, which will be voted on today, has been proposed to stop teenagers taking up smoking.
In a letter to The Times, leading medical charities and doctors' leaders point out that smoking-related illness, including cancer, "kills more people than alcohol, obesity, illegal drugs and road accidents put together".
But newsagents say that the proposed ban will put many of them out of business, and tobacco manufacturers have commissioned research into countries that have imposed similar measures. One study, funded by Japan Tobacco International (JTI), said that a tobacco display ban in Canada was linked to a rise in the prevalence of smoking among 15 to 19-year-olds.
JTI's findings, which are disputed by ASH attempt to undermine the citing of Canada as a precedent for the Bill.

Official studies show that in Iceland, which has the longest experience of any such ban, smoking among 15-year-olds fell from 18.6 per cent in 1999 to 13.6 per cent in 2003 -- two years after the law was introduced.

Source: The Times Online, 12 October 2009