KEY POINTS:
The more teenagers visit shops where cigarettes are on display, the more likely they are to start smoking, new research by anti-smoking organisation ASH says.
A survey has been conducted among thousands of students around the country each year since 1999.
Last year 27,000 Year 10 students from 238 schools were asked questions which indicated their susceptibility to smoking such as "If your best friend offered you a cigarette, would you smoke it?" and "At any time in the next year do you think you will smoke a cigarette?". With four possible responses, anyone not choosing "definitely not" was deemed at risk.
Researchers found teens who visited shops such as dairies two or three times a week rated twice as likely to start or experiment with smoking than those who visited less than weekly.
"(And) it's a dose response. The more visits they are making the higher the likelihood of that susceptibility to smoking," researcher Dr Janine Paynter told NZPA.
Those who hit the dairy daily recorded three times the risk of the sub-weekly shoppers.
Dr Paynter said the size of the survey meant it could be adjusted for other factors such as parental smoking, peer smoking, decile, and ethnicity.
The survey was carried out before cigarette packets began carrying pictures of various smoking-related diseases, but Dr Paynter did not believe their introduction would have much effect.
"My feeling is not enough of the packet is taken up with graphic warnings. They don't disrupt the brand imagery enough."
ASH said the research proves a "significant" association between the displays and smoking.
"Our recommendation is that tobacco displays are removed. It is not going to stop all teens smoking, but we believe it will stop a proportion of them," Dr Paynter said.
"Anything that can be done to protect children from an addictive and deadly habit like smoking is worthwhile. It is important teens get the message that tobacco products are not everyday, normal products like the bread and milk alongside which they are sold."
- NZPA
