Smoke altar ‘has to go’
Tuesday 22nd September 2009, 2:29PM BST.
THE percentage of children getting cigarettes from shops has almost trebled in the last two years, a survey released yesterday revealed.
It was conducted by the Guernsey Adolescent Smokefree Project.
The survey showed that 35% of students who smoked bought them from a shop compared with 12% two years ago.
Educating parents and banning cigarette displays in shops are two areas being targeted by the team.
‘In Guernsey, they shine like an altar in a focal point of the shop. It doesn’t make sense when we are working so hard to stop these children smoking,’ said Gasp chairman Alun Williams.
Group manager Vidya Amey said: ‘There is still an urgent need to enforce the law against proxy purchasing of cigarettes as well as selling to under-18s and to educate students and parents about passive smoking.’
Since the 2007 survey of young people, the percentage of Year 8 boys smoking has doubled to 4% but the number of girls the same age with the habit has dropped dramatically from 7% to 1%.
Among Year 10 pupils, boys smoking dropped from 9% to 6% with a rise in girls from 14% to 17%.
Mr Williams (pictured) said parents also had to change their habits and that a worrying number of children were exposed to smoke in the home and car.
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When I read this headline I had visions of watching a load of teenagers bowing and prostrating themselves in worship before the shop counter!
Sorry – I know it’s a serious issue but that made me chuckle!
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I don’t know where they get their figures from, but I would imagine children lie in these questionnaires.
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I personally don’t think that removing the cigarette displays will make a blind bit of difference, kids know that the cigarettes are there whether they’re surrounded by neon flashing lights or hidden under the counter!!!!
If they’ve been going to a regular shop to buy ciggies then they’ll continue to go there coz they get served, maybe they should be looking at the shopkeepers as they’re clearly serving people under-age!!!
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GG – I agree, surveys conducted using children are not going to be reliable.
Also think about it like this:
Two years ago 100 students smoked, 12 of them getting their ‘dooners’ from a shop. Now only a third of that number smoke but still 12 buy from a shop. This is not an increase in students buying from shops, merely an increase in percentage due to less smoking.
It’s fine talking percentages but I think we need to hear some numbers.
Also “In Guernsey, they shine like an altar in a focal point of the shop”, this is taking this display thing too far now. Kids smoke because they see other kids doing it, not because they experience some sort of religious, tobacco based enlightenment.
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Am I being stupid (a question i fear that will encourage reply) but wouldn’t the use of official ID cards/drivers licences, as with alcohol, prohibit the purchase of goods by the underage?
This should be a standard check by shop attendants, punishable by fine.
Get a mate to buy, I know, but stops the direct purchase.
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Brilliant Mr Editor.
An article on smoking and the journalist assigned?
Zoe Ash….that made me chuckle.
What’s next, articles on incineration only assigned to Zoe? :-)
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Good spot Peter, I hadn’t noticed that small dose of irony!
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