A landmark in public health history was reached yesterday as new measures to protect children and young people from the harmful effects of tobacco became law.
Receiving Royal Assent through the House of Lords were measures to remove cigarettes and tobacco from display at the point of sale and to remove all cigarette vending machines.
The new tobacco legislation will come into effect for large retailers in 2011 and small retailers in 2013. Health campaigners across the North West are celebrating the news and congratulating those MPs who voted in favour of the Health Bill 2009 last month and the new measures to help prevent children and young people taking up smoking.
Regulations about how to implement these new measures will now need to be agreed by Parliament in the New Year. With 80% of smokers starting before the age of 19, 10% of young people in the region admitting to regularly buying cigarettes from vending machines and 46% of UK teens aware of tobacco point of sale marketing, the new legislation can only help to reduce illness and early death from smoking related diseases.
