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Health tsar hails plan to hide tobacco
Portsmouth's public health tsar has hailed the House of Lords for taking a 'big step' towards preventing young people from smoking.
Members overwhelmingly backed a bill to put tobacco out of sight in shops.
Once the bill has passed through the Lords it will also need to be agreed by the House of Commons before becoming law.
Now Dr Paul Edmondson-Jones, director of public health and wellbeing for Portsmouth, is calling for the fight to keep tobacco out of sight in shops to be stepped up.
Last month Portsmouth City Teaching Primary Care Trust was among more than 100 organisations to sign an advert which appeared in the Observer newspaper calling on the Lords to vote to put tobacco out of sight.
Health officials hope it will help persuade the estimated 29 per cent of people in Portsmouth who smoke to quit.
Dr Edmondson-Jones, director of public health for the trust, said: 'This plan will close one of the remaining loopholes in the ban on tobacco advertising.
'Ending point of sale displays will remove a highly visible form of advertising in shops and protect children from tobacco industry marketing.
'Smoking kills more than 100,000 people in the UK every year. In time, this move will help save lives. It is quite wrong to have a situation where children can go into shops and see cigarettes in eye-catching packaging for sale alongside sweets and crisps.
'We all have a role to play to maintain the pressure on our law-makers.'
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Weather for Portsmouth
Friday 10 February 2012
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