From: Nottingham Post
SAFETY features in cigarettes? Sounds ironic, given that in the UK the smoking habit is the primary cause of 100,000 funerals a year.
However, an increasing number of cigarettes being sold illegally in Notts comes with a double danger.
As well as offering the usual prospect of life-shortening ailments – lung and throat cancer, heart attacks, strokes – several smuggled and counterfeit brands do not meet safety standards aimed at preventing house fires.
A series of raids by trading standards officers in the Ilkeston and Long Eaton areas – some on shops set up specifically to trade in illegal cigarettes – prompted Derbyshire County Council to issue a New Year warning on dodgy fags.
Their colleagues in Nottinghamshire share those concerns and are worried about another facet of the problem: a new poster reflects officials’ concerns that the easy availability of cheap cigarettes is getting more youngsters into the smoking habit.
According to the poster, an estimated 1,000 15-year-olds in Notts have become habitual smokers, and most know where to get hold of cheap cigarettes.
“Illegal cigarettes are an increasing problem in Nottinghamshire and we are having to do a lot more work to combat them,” said trading standards team manager Nicola Schofield.
Illicitly-traded tobacco products fall into one of three areas of illegality. They are smuggled, bootlegged or counterfeited.
