Public call for tougher restrictions on buying tobacco in Britain

teenager smoking People in Britain strongly support restricting the sale of tobacco near schools and raising the legal age of sale to 21, finds a new UCL-led study. In collaboration with The University of Edinburgh and Cardiff University, the research, published in Tobacco Control , examined data from the Cancer Research UK and SPECTRUM*-funded Smoking Toolkit Study, which has surveyed approximately 1,700 adults each month from England since 2006, and 2,200 adults each month from England, Scotland and Wales, since 2020. The researchers examined data from September 2021, which asked participants about their views on potential policies targeting the availability of tobacco and cigarettes. The results indicated that most of those surveyed supported retailers having their license revoked if they sold tobacco products to those under-age (89.6%) and for restrictions on the sale of cigarettes and tobacco near schools (69. Meanwhile, half (49.2%) thought that the legal age of sale for cigarettes and tobacco should be raised to 21, compared with just under a third who were opposed to the idea (30. Participants were also in favour of reducing the number of retailers selling tobacco in neighbourhoods that already had a high density of tobacco retailers - with almost half (46.5%) showing their support, compared with less than a quarter (23.3%) who disagreed. Lead author Dr Loren Kock (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health) said: "Our findings indicate that policies to restrict tobacco retail near schools, and for tobacco retailer licences would receive strong majority support from the British public if legislated.