Welshpool to ban cigarette machines

 

A new law which will ban the sale of cigarettes from vending machines will come into force locally tomorrow (Wednesday), Powys County Council has confirmed.

It will be illegal to sell cigarettes (or any other tobacco product) from a vending machine to anyone, regardless of their age. The move is intended to safeguard youngsters from the harmful effects of smoking.

Businesses affected have already been advised and from tomorrow they will need to remove the machines or have the tobacco advertising taken away or covered up.

The council’s trading standards officers will be enforcing the ban with fines of up to £2,500 for selling cigarettes through the machines and up to £5,000 or two-year prison sentences if a vending machine still displays tobacco advertising.

Cllr Geraint Hopkins, Cabinet Member for Environment and Regulation, said: “Vending machines are an easy way for under 18s to buy cigarettes, especially where the machines are unsupervised. So making cigarettes less accessible is one way of discouraging children from taking up smoking in the first place. It will also support the efforts of adults in the Welshpool area who try to quit smoking each year.”

Although tobacco vending machines account for only one per cent of the UK market in tobacco sales, a disproportionate number of young people under 18 purchase cigarettes from vending machines. Ten per cent of regular smokers aged 11 to 15 reported that cigarette vending machines are their usual source of tobacco.

 

For further guidance on preventing the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18, visit www.powys.gov.uk/tradingstandards