How would the tobacco retail landscape change if tobacco was only sold through liquor stores, petrol stations or pharmacies?

Abstract

The authors have stated the following conflict of interest: Although we do not consider it a competing interest, for the sake of full transparency we note that authors have undertaken work for health sector agencies working in tobacco control. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. AbstractObjective: To examine the potential impact of tobacco being available only from pharmacies, only from liquor stores or only from petrol stations on the New Zealand tobacco retail landscape.Methods: Tobacco retailers and pharmacies were mapped using GIS. Comparisons were made between tobacco retailers and pharmacies. Simple linear regression was used to assess the relationship between outlet types and deprivation.Results: A total of 5,243 tobacco outlets, including liquor stores and petrol stations, and 1,035 pharmacies were identified. The density of all outlets was greater in areas of higher deprivation. The majority of tobacco retailers and pharmacies were located in urban areas. Outlets were mapped in relation to walking distances from secondary schools; significant differences between outlet types are presented. Conclusions:The policy options examined in this study would considerably reduce the overall availability of tobacco, decrease cues to smoke and reduce the density of tobacco sales around schools. However, inequities in availability would exist with access to tobacco in rural areas disproportionately reduced, and a positive sociodemographic gradient remaining.Implications for public health: Substantially reducing tobacco availability has been identified as a crucial tobacco control strategy. This study provides information on the impact of different policy options to support Smokefree 2025.

Simulating the density reduction and equity impact of potential tobacco retail control policies

“…Previous studies have evaluated a single or small number of policies [17][18][19]21,22], and few have evaluated the equity impact [21,22]. We explicitly evaluated density reduction and equity-impact of twelve potential policies selected based on previous research, many of which have been considered elsewhere [19,[21][22][23][24]. We used data on the real-world location of tobacco retailers to create continuous TOD surfaces as the basis for simulations, rather than hypothetical distributions at aggregate small area level.…”

“…Some studies have quantified the impact of such policies on overall TOD [17,18], or the cost of tobacco products [19,20]. Few studies have explicitly focused on the equity-impact of prospective policy interventions to control tobacco availability, but those that have showed that the equityimpacts of different policy options vary widely [21][22][23]. For example, the removal of tobacco sales from US pharmacies had no impact on existing racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in TOD across neighbourhoods [21]; whereas banning tobacco sales within 1000 feet of schools may either reduce or eliminate existing disparities [22].…”

“…For example, the removal of tobacco sales from US pharmacies had no impact on existing racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in TOD across neighbourhoods [21]; whereas banning tobacco sales within 1000 feet of schools may either reduce or eliminate existing disparities [22]. Exploring four policy options, Marsh et al (2020) found that whilst there would be an overall reduction in tobacco availability, its socioeconomic gradient would persist under each option [23]. In modelling the impact of theoretical tobacco control policy options on tobacco cost across two levels of population density and two levels of income, Luke et al (2017) showed that there is no "one size fits all" retailer reduction policy.…”

Ex ante evaluation of the impact of tobacco control policy measures aimed at the point of sale in the Netherlands

“…We found that tobacco outlet proximity is expected to be marginally affected by tobacco sales bans in supermarkets and petrol stations. Tobacco outlets will remain accessible within 500 m of postcode centroids, which would be a 5.5 min walk or 2.5 min bicycle ride 40. Tobacco outlet proximity is an important aspect of tobacco control, as it affects smoking outcomes.…”

Uncovering Philip Morris International’s Fundamental Strategies for Product Placement in Thailand: Spotlighting Industry Penetration to Advance the Endgame

“…We selected and report on the most relevant and illuminating documents, particularly those in which PMAI Research on placement of tobacco products in the retail spaces has been an accelerating area of tobacco control research (Abdel Magid et al, 2020;Anesetti-Rothermel et al, 2020;Glasser and Roberts, 2021;Lawman et al, 2020;Marsh et al, 2020;Marsh et al, 2021;Morrison et al, 2021;Pike et al, 2019;Pollay, 2007;Rodriguez et al, 2014;Shareck et al, 2020;Trapl et al, 2020;Valiente et al, 2020). Between 1999 and 2013, a few studies on tobacco retail placement were published in the international literature (Dewhirst, 2004;Feighery et al, 2003;Halonen et al, 2014;Lavack and Toth, 2006;Pollay, 2007;Rodriguez et al, 2014), then from 2016 increasing to more than a dozen (Abdel Magid et al, 2020;Anesetti-Rothermel et al, 2020;Glasser and Roberts, 2021;Lawman et al, 2020;Marsh et al, 2020;Marsh et al, 2021;Morrison et al, 2021;Pike et al, 2019;Shareck et al, 2020;Trapl et al, 2020;Valiente et al, 2020). Most studies on tobacco retail sales have been conducted in high-income countries, although a few studies have been conducted in Southeast Asia, including in Thailand (Li et al, 2015;Noosorn, 2019, 2020).…”