Cigarettes – now you see them …

Under the new laws expected to come into effect later this year, visible cigarette displays in shops, supermarkets and tobacconists will be phased out. Supermarkets and larger chain stores will have six months to comply, while smaller retailers will have a year to move products out of sight.

For Hazem Sedda, owner of Redfern Convenience Store, the change will present few practical difficulties since he already has a roller door system to lock cigarettes behind the counter away at his midnight closing time. “It might slow down people from overseas who don’t know the rules and look in to see if there are cigarettes, but for locals, they’ll still be in,” he said. “I think the disgusting pictures on the packs had more of an impact because I’d see how strongly smokers reacted to them.”

Tobacconists will have longer to adapt to the changes, having to remove displays visible from outside their shops within 12 months and comply with a complete ban within four years.

Across the road at The Smoke Shop in Redfern, there are no plans to jump ship and owner Thai Le is in no rush yet to implement the changes. “We will wait to hear what the cigarette companies advise for how to store the goods. Maybe it will be a shutter system and if everyone has to do it, we will have to follow eventually.”

Echoing comments by Mr Sedda at the convenience store, Mr Le said he doubted it would make much difference for smokers, who know what they want when they come in. In terms of discouraging children from smoking by not seeing cigarettes, he said: “If it works, that’s a good thing.”

Anti-tobacco campaigner Professor Simon Chapman, from the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health, welcomed the new regulations that he described as “stringent” and “comprehensive”.

“Nothing as comprehensive has ever been introduced in the area of tobacco control in the history of this country. In terms of significance, the banning of radio and television advertising way back in 1976 would rank with this,” he said. “Getting tobacco out of shops from open display sends an unmistakable message to the community that these are not products like bread and milk and sweets. They are very different, killer products.”

As for any evidence that the move will make a difference to rates of smoking, he pointed to other countries that have implemented bans on open display, notably Canada and Thailand, having “among the fastest accelerating downward trends in tobacco smoking in the world”.

Both countries combine these measures with other things, Professor Chapman said, as will be the case in NSW with the display ban to be combined with measures imposing fines on motorists if caught smoking in a car with children under the age of 16.

While admitting it is difficult to determine the exact effect of any individual measure, Professor Chapman said he was confident, and the tobacco companies’ opposition to the move sends a very important message.

Addressing the argument that the move is a heavy-handed tactic for a legal product, Professor Chapman said: “It’s a legal product yes but so, for example, are prescription drugs, and they are heavily regulated. You can’t just go off the street to get them, you need to go to the doctor, pay money, wait for a prescription. It’s a limited dose and if you need more, you need to go back to the doctor. That’s the way we treat drugs that help health so I think it’s really appropriate to treat a product like tobacco in the way that’s been announced.”

The laws are expected to be introdued in the spring session when NSW parliament returns from its recess.

Source: South Sydney Herald August 2008 www.southsydneyherald.com.au