MONDAY, July 19 (HealthDay News) -- Point-of-sale tobacco
advertising is a major cause of teen smoking in the United States
and should be banned, Stanford University Medical School
researchers say.
These types of tobacco ads in places such as convenience stores,
gas stations and small groceries are highly effective in terms of
their impact on teens and greatly increase the chances that they'll
start smoking, according to Lisa Henriksen, a senior research
scientist at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, and
colleagues.
Their survey of 2,110 teens between 11 and 14 years old found
that those who regularly visited stores with point-of-sale tobacco
ads were at least twice as likely to try smoking as those who made
infrequent visits.
"The tobacco industry argues the purpose of advertising is to encourage smokers to switch brands, but this shows that advertising encourages teenagers to pick up a deadly habit," Henriksen said in a Stanford news release.
Point-of-sale advertising in retail outlets accounted for 90
percent of the tobacco industry's $12.5 billion marketing budget in
2006, according to the researchers.
Henrikson herself was "surprised by the sheer number of
cigarette brand impressions" -- that is, cigarette ads, tobacco
product displays and cigarette brand-labeled objects such as
clocks, trash cans and cash register mats -- in convenience stores
near schools.
"The exposure is unavoidable. It's impossible to miss," she said.
The study appears in the August issue of the journal
Pediatrics.
Henriksen noted that the decline in teenage smoking has leveled
off in recent years. According to federal statistics, high school
students who reported current cigarette use declined sharply from a
peak of 36.4 percent in 1997, to 21.9 percent in 2003. Then, the
percentage dropped just a bit to 19.5 in 2009.
"The huge decreases are really starting to slow," she said. "The train won't continue downhill without further action. Regulating retail marketing would be ideal for smoking prevention."
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more
about
kids and tobacco.