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Report of the Tobacco Policy Research Study Group on Access to Tobacco Products in the United States

Year: 1992

Type: article

Abstract: There are many factors that influence young people to start and to continue smoking.Interventions to reduce tobacco use can focus on either limiting the supply or decreasing the demand for tobacco.Clearly, interventions of both kinds are necessary.Efforts to reduce access should be complemented by compre hensive prevention curricula in schools, making schools smokefree zones, and the elim ination of tobacco advertising and promotions, to name a few activities of high priority.Access to tobacco may be thought of as a system, comprised of the environment (tobacco outlets, distributors, companies) the agent (tobacco), and hosts (smokers, especially young people).Efforts to prevent tobacco use early in life should consider each component of this sys tem ; the eventual goal is a generation of young people who never start using tobacco.This report summarises the body of research on access to tobacco by young people and outlines questions arising from this research.ACCESS TO TOBACCO PRODUCTS BY YOUNG PEOPLE As of July 1991, 46 states and the District of Columbia had laws regulating tobacco sales to minors, but these laws are rarely enforced.An enforcement review found that five states had nominal restrictions (for example, laws ban on

Source: Tobacco Control

DOI: 10.1136/tc.1.suppl1.s45