Compliance with national tobacco control legislation: a survey of tobacco vendors of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

Introduction: Tobacco remains the world’s leading preventable cause of death, with the majority of tobacco-caused deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. The Government of Pakistan 2002 Prohibition of Smoking in Enclosed Places and Protection of Non-smokers Health Ordinance comprehensively prohibits all kinds of tobacco advertisement, sponsorship, and ban of selling cigarettes to minors, near the vicinity of educational institutes and to sell tobacco without a license. However, it is a common observation that tobacco vendors do not comply with the policy.

Objective:  To assess the compliance with anti-tobacco laws by tobacco vendors in the city of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Material & Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 145 shops across 2 jurisdictions (Hayatabad and Peshawar city) of Peshawar. The implementations of tobacco laws like advertisement, tobacco selling to minors (<18 years) and tobacco selling in the vicinity of educational institutes were assessed through a self-structured questionnaire. The data were transferred and analyzed through SPSS version 22 for descriptive statistics.

Results: The most common method of advertisement of tobacco products was stickers (33.3%) followed by dangles (29.6%) and product showcasing (15.7%). The percentage of tobacco sold to minors was 63%; 42% vendors were near the educational institutes. The selected shops were selling smokeless tobacco (82.6% shops) as well, alongside cigarettes. Unlicensed shops were 97.9% which approximately makes the whole of the sample size.

Conclusion: The compliance of tobacco vendors in Peshawar towards tobacco law is very poor. Also, the sale of tobacco to minors was found to be a routine occurrence.