Objective:
To understand the distribution of tobacco point-of-purchase(pop) activies 100 meters around the primary and middle school and the situation of selling cigarettes to students of Tianjin. To provide evidence for creating a smoke-free and healthy school environment.
Methods:
With the method of simple random sampling, 195 schools were selected to investigate the tobacco retailers within 100 meters around the school, and the nearest tobacco retailers was observed.
Results:
Totally 36.9 percent of the schools found tobacco retailers within 100 meters. There were 127 tobacco retailers, and no tobacco advertisements were found. The percentage of tobacco retailers within 100 meters of vocational schools, primary schools and middle schools was 33.3%, 34.1% and 40.4%, respectively. Among the 72 tobacco retailers observed, the proportion of tobacco retailers within 20, 21-50, and 51-100 meters from the school were 9.7%, 36.1% and 54.2%, respectively. The majority of tobacco retailers were grocery stores/convenience stores (55.6%), followed by alcohol and tobacco stores (34.7%). The proportion of tobacco selling points failing to set up the signs of "smoking harmful to health" and "not selling cigarettes to minors" were 81.9% and 86.1% respectively.
Conclusion
It’s concerning that the layout of tobacco retailers and the posting of signs, and the tobacco products for to minors in Tianjin. It is necessary to strengthen the surrounding environment renovation and publicity and law enforcement.