Ontario Ban On Cigarette Displays Supported By U Of T Research

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 25 May 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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Just weeks before Ontario implements a ban on the retail display of all tobacco products, new research from the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit at the University of Toronto shows that consumers have been bombarded by extensive tobacco promotion at point of sale.

Places where tobacco is sold have become important environments for the tobacco industry to communicate with current, former and potential smokers through large tobacco product displays, countertop displays and signs advertising tobacco.

The research conducted by Joanna Cohen, a professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto and Principal Investigator with the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, involved an examination of over 480 establishments including convenience stores, gas stations and grocery stores in 20 Ontario cities.

"The province's upcoming ban on displaying tobacco products couldn't come sooner," says Cohen. "Our research shows tobacco promotions were extensive in stores across Ontario. The vast majority of chain convenience stores had large displays of cigarettes with shelf gliders (98%), shelf liners (97%), and a top display panel (89%) colour-coded to complement various cigarette brands, and 89% had tobacco products placed within one foot of candy."

The team headed by Cohen, which also included researchers from University of Regina and University of Western Ontario, found that tobacco promotions were higher among stores close to a school, and in neighbourhoods with lower median household incomes.

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The study findings are published in the current edition of the Canadian Journal of Public Health. Funding for this project was provided by a grant from the Canadian Tobacco Control Research Initiative.

The Ontario Tobacco Research Unit (OTRU) is a multi-centred research unit established in 1993 with funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health to foster and conduct research, monitoring and evaluation contributing to programs and policies to eliminate tobacco-related health problems in Ontario. The Principal sponsor is U of T's Department of Public Health Sciences. The Unit's co-sponsors include the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the University of Waterloo and Cancer Care Ontario.

Source: Christa Poole
University of Toronto

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