Assessment of compliance with tobacco regulations on ban of advertisements at the point of sale in urban areas of Bengaluru City

Abstract

Introduction: Tobacco accounts for the largest number of preventable deaths. Along with creating awareness and educating people regarding the ill effects of tobacco on health, it is necessary to have laws regulating the sales of tobacco and its product. Cigarettes and other tobacco products act give the regulations for it. Aim: The aim of this study was to conduct an audit of the point of sales (POS) tobacco advertising and assess compliance with advertising ban in Bengaluru city. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted over a period of 2 months. Data were collected from stores in urban areas from eight zones of Bengaluru city using multistage random sampling. Four wards were randomly selected from each of the 8 zones, 4 areas were randomly selected from each ward and 10 shops were randomly selected from each area in the ratio of 1 supermarket: 1 liquor store: 3 convenience store: 5 tuck shops. Results: Results indicated that the 93.9% of the existing shops were not within the 100 yards of any educational institute, 75.8% of them had product showcasing, 81.9% of the stores had boards displayed promotional message, 30.6% had tobacco logo at POS, 93.6% of the stores had more than one interior advertisements, 85.25 of the stores had product placement <1 m of snacks counter, 88.2% of the stores did not display warning signage, 88.3% of the stores did not display no smoking signage, and 85.7% of the stores did not display no smoking area or smoking here is an offense. Conclusion: The results of the present study suggested that there is a lack of compliance with tobacco advertising ban among stores selling tobacco in Bengaluru city. POS advertising has become strategic locations for tobacco companies to advertise their brands.

Keywords

• Compliance
• point of sale
• tobacco regulations