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Trading Standards |
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Underage Sales Tobacco Smoking is linked to 120 000 deaths each year in Britain. It can cause cancer, heart disease, respiratory disorders such as emphysema and other disorders. It can also increase more minor irritations such as coughing, sneezing and shortness of breath.
The younger a person is when they start smoking or are exposed to tobacco smoke the worse the effects on their health. More than 80% of adult smokers start in their early teens.
Department of Health figures suggest that in England in 2001 10% of 11 to 15 year olds smoked regularly (other sources quote a figure of 12%), this equated to 11 % of girls and 8% of boys. Within the age range 1% of 11 year old were regular smokers rising to 22% of 15 year olds.
Department of Health statistics also suggest that in the period Sept 2000 to Aug 2001 Trading Standards Services throughout the country made a total of 3800 attempted test purchases with under 16 volunteers, 445 were successful.
The component of tobacco smoke which causes the physical addiction is nicotine, which in its purest form is one of the powerful alkaloid poisons known. It is also used as a component in insecticide.
Addiction to nicotine is usually established in young smokers within about a year of first experimenting with cigarettes, in many cases they are hooked before reaching the age at which it is legal to buy cigarettes.
Legislation: Children and Young Persons (Protection from Tobacco) Act 1991
Age restriction: The minimum age for buying cigarettes and tobacco products is 18. |
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Gloucestershire
Trading Standards, Hillfield House, Denmark Road,
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