Nada Young India Network demands Tobacco Product Display Ban at Point of Sale

Comprehensive advertising bans are most effective. 

As India works to recover from the devastating health toll of the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers must act to adopt strong tobacco control measures and eliminate POS tobacco product displays to protect youth from experimenting with tobacco products and former smokers from relapsing.

CURRENT COTPA REGULATIONS: Section 5(1) of COTPA provides for a comprehensive ban on all tobacco advertising. Section 5(2) provides for exceptions from the general prohibition for advertising: displayed at the entrance or inside a warehouse or a shop where cigarettes or other tobacco products are offered for distribution or sale. 

PROPOSED COTPA AMENDMENT: Prohibit the display of tobacco products inside or outside any warehouse or store that offers tobacco products for sale; require retailers to ensure all tobacco products are kept in a closed container or dispenser that is not accessible to any member of the public.

During a pilot study conducted by Nada Young India Network members in various districts like Faridabad, Gurugram, Amritsar, Noida, Patna and Chennai, we observed various conditions under which kirana stores sell tobacco products especially cigarettes. Some of the common observations made from all our field visits is that tobacco is seen as a complementary medium to drive sales. Selling other items like newspapers, biscuits, cake, tea etc. has become easier because of tobacco. And likewise tobacco has also become the most revenue/ profit generator than other commodities in their store. While several other points related to the vendor's socio-economic backgrounds were observed, in this article we would like to point out the observation made on Point of Sales.

We collected mixed responses from various shops who follow POS. In these shops the tobacco products (cigarettes) are placed on shelves at eye level for children and youth and beside candies or biscuits which children would pick up. In shops that don't follow POS, they have their cigarettes hidden in cash counters or under the shelves as they are probably selling it illegally like near a school zone for example. In these stores although they don't follow POS, they still allow all their customers to smoke right outside their shops making it obvious for children to understand that this shop sells tobacco products.

In conclusion, earlier the children and youth get exposed to tobacco related products, earlier they are vulnerable to developing the habit of it and the more difficult it gets to quit sooner. POS in any form should not be normalised and there needs to be stricter regulation and registration systems for tobacco vendors which will help in controlling the smoking zones around children and youth. Society needs to be clear about their social norms as every household and communities and educational institutions have different norms. But as a community we need to denormalise the situation of selling cigarettes close to candies and allowing people to smoke in school and kids zones. 

The WHO 2019 Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic categorizes India’s tobacco advertising policy as moderate. The report notes that in India, point-of-sale (POS) advertising and product display are allowed. These forms of advertising must be banned for India to fully comply with its obligations as a Party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and join 48 global best practice countries with comprehensive bans on all tobacco advertising.ⁱ

• Tobacco product displays act as a potent marketing tool and allow the tobacco industry to communicate with non-smokers, ex-smokers and established smokers.
• A 2018 study, Tiny Targets, by Consumer Voice and Voluntary Health Association of India observed 225 tobacco product points-of-sale across 6 states and found that 91% of product displays were at a child’s eye level, and 90% of displays were next to candy, sweets, and toys.
• POS tobacco product displays encourage impulse purchases, especially in young people^, and users who are trying to quit.^v,
• For youth, studies have shown that exposure to tobacco product displays is strongly associated with smoking initiation, susceptibility to smoking, or intentions to smoke.^,,,,
• A US study estimated that requiring cigarette packs to be kept out of sight could reduce adolescents’ exposure to cigarette brand impressions in-store by as much as 83%.POS tobacco product display bans do not harm businesses..