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ASH Daily News

Friday 15 October, 1999

Headlines

‘Young teenagers smoking less’
Trading Standards survey shows that adult products sold to underage
children.
‘4 million kids buy booze and smokes’
‘Milk scandal as tokens go to buy booze’

Full Text

‘Young teenagers smoking less’

The Office for National Statistics new survey is widely reported. It
shows, the fall in 11-15 year olds is checked by the fact that one in
three have experimented with drugs, mainly cannabis, by the time they
are 15.

Girls continue to smoke more than boys and by the age of 15. Only 30%
of young teenagers said they had never tried a cigarette. The number
of young teenagers smoking a cigarette at least once a week fell
between 1996 and 1998 from 13% to 11% in England and from 14% to 12%
in Scotland.

But the survey shows that by the age of 15 one in four schoolchildren
is smoking at least one cigarette a week and most of those who do
smoke get through 20 or more cigarettes a week.

A popular way for these teenagers to buy cigarettes is in packets of
ten, from shops, and 75% said they would find it difficult to quit.

A spokesperson for the Health Education Authority said of the study:
“It shows that the hard work being done to educate young people about
drink, drugs and smoking is get through”.

This is the first drop in figures since 1988. Amanda Sandford of ASH
responded, ‘This is good news but we cannot afford to be complacent.
Teens are still taking up smoking alarming numbers despite health
education campaigns and other initiatives to discourage smoking’.

Source: The Guardian, The Times, The Express, The Independent and
others, 15 October 1999.

Link: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/10/15/timnwsnws01032

Trading Standards survey shows that adult products sold to underage
children.

One in six shops is breaking the law by selling goods such as
cigarettes, alcohol and over 18 videos to children. The Institute of
Trading Standards ‘called for a review of the age laws and said the
limits for tobacco and lottery ticket sales should be raised to 18,’
reports the Guardian.

Of 2,388 premises visited, young volunteers were sold age-restricted
goods in 412. They were asked for their age in 725 shops, and for
further proof in 402.

Source: The Guardian, The Express, The Daily Mail, 15 October 1999

‘4 million kids buy booze and smokes’

‘More than four million children in Britain are drinking and smoking’.
One in three youngsters aged 12 to 15 has bought cigarettes with 22%
buying alcohol. The figures emerged yesterday from a nationwide
Camelot survey.

Consumers Affairs Minister, Dr Kim Howells, called the results
“horrifying” and said cigarette sales should be banned for under-18’s
instead of under-16’s as at present.

Source: The Mirror, 15 October 1999

‘Milk scandal as tokens go to buy booze and fags’

‘Mean parents are exchanging their children’s milk tokens for booze
and fags…dishonest shopkeepers are taking the £2.73 government tokens
and swapping them for £1.50 worth of goods’.

The Merseyside Milkmen who exposed the scam has sent his evidence to
the Department of Health, which is investigating. He complained “A
large part of my round used to be milk tokens. Only two years ago I
was taking 250 tokens a week. Now I am collecting less than 100…It
makes me very angry that parents are swapping them for booze and
cigarettes ”

Source: Daily Star, 15 October 1999

Karl Brookes
Project Manager
102 Clifton Street
London EC2A 4HW
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