Tobacco, supervision and availability

2011-09-15

Summary of a publication in Swedish.

An interview study and systematic literature review regarding availability-limiting methods.

The first part of the report describes how 26 municipalities in Sweden work with supervision pursuant to the Tobacco Act. Focus has been the municipalities’ supervision of tobacco sales. Data has been gathered through structured phone interviews with municipal employees who work with supervision.

The results show that both the conditions and procedures for supervision differ between the municipalities included in the study. This is particularly true of how many working hours are used for supervision under the Tobacco Act, which also affects how many inspection visits are made, for instance. How much cooperation there is within the municipalities also varies, as well as how much cooperation there is with other actors, such as the county administrative boards and business operators, with regard to work with tobacco. The study presents examples of municipalities in which there are networks that work with tobacco prevention and in which the police and municipal employees make joint inspection visits. There are also examples of municipalities that conduct joint projects, with business operators, school staff and others, that aim to reduce availability of tobacco to young people.

However, there are also those who say that cooperation does not function and that they feel alone in the work. National coordination for all of Sweden’s municipalities in terms of supervision could mean that the supervision work would be developed. In addition, better collaboration or networks concerning tobacco prevention work in the municipalities with express goals of being able to facilitate the possibility of working with several intervention measures at the same time. This could entail a step forward for the tobacco prevention work.

Something that is emphasized in many interviews is that there is no possibility to use test purchasing or other methods to check compliance to the age limit for tobacco purchases. According to several of those interviewed, the results of test purchasing were also appropriate for use in the dialogue with business operators at inspection visits. The municipalities appear to be cautious about using sanctions upon potential deficiencies in compliance with the provisions of the Tobacco Act. This might be attributed to there being some uncertainty among some of those who work with supervision as to how the sanctions can be used and what is required to use them.

To read the entire summary please download the pdf under Related links to the right.