BMA: Tobacco must be inaccessible to young

Tobacco products must be made inaccessible to children, according to the British Medical Association (BMA).

Its comments follow proposals in a consultation document from the Department of Health to reduce the number of young people taking up smoking.

The doctors' group has welcomed the recommendations, saying they are similar to ones made by the BMA in a recent report.

"One way to [reduce young people smoking] is to ban ten-packs of cigarettes and to get rid of tobacco vending machines," Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of BMA science and ethics, said.

"We need to break the tobacco trap. Young smokers will become tomorrow's parents who smoke and they will continue the cycle of smoking-related ill-health and premature death.

"The BMA will be responding in full to this consultation and our primary objective will be to protect children's health and help smokers quit."