Tougher Smoking Laws Planned for NSW
Published on August 6, 2008 3:14 AM
New South Wales (NSW) cabinet approved the ban of cigarettes sales, the cigarettes advertisements, and smoking in cars with children under 16 will be banned also under tough new tobacco laws.
Supermarkets also are going to be banned from displaying cigarettes within six months and small retailers will have to hide packets behind their counters within a year under the laws.
Cigarette vending machines will be restricted to pubs and clubs and they will accept only tokens, which smokers will have to buy from the bar. The machines will not be allowed to display any advertising.
Even tobacconists will have to black out their windows so cigarettes are not visible from the street and within four years they will also have to keep them under counters. Smoking in cars with children under 16 will also be banned.
Morris Iemma, an Australian politician and the Premier of New South Wales, will announce the new changes, said he did not care if they seemed "over the top".
Mr. Iemma said that he is agreeing with the fact that tobacco companies advertise their products for one reason - they want more customers.
Morris Iemma added: "So we're going to take them out of eyesight, and ensure young people aren't tempted into taking up smoking by glossy advertising or marketing pressure when they go shopping. We also have an obligation to those who've kicked the habit."
The Premier of New South Wales reported that children in cars should not be forced to breathe in toxins from their parents' cigarettes.
Mr. Iemma reported: "If parents smoke in cars, they take that health choice away from their children. I'm determined to enforce that responsibility, even if some parents aren't."
Simon Chapman, a professor in public health at the University of Sydney, said banning cigarette displays was crucial to lowering the rates of smoking and NSW would be the first state to implement the ban.
The Premier of New South Wales as many other anti-smoking researchers sustained that storing tobacco product out of sight in shops would make it easier for smokers to quit.
