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Shop sales of tobacco challenged 

An Auckland academic says smoking rates in New Zealand would plummet if tobacco products could not be displayed at shops.

Dr Marewa Glover, of the University of Auckland, told a select committee yesterday that progress in tobacco control was poor and it was having a particularly bad effect among Maori.

She said outside the hearing that she disagreed with tobacco industry giant British American Tobacco New Zealand that banning smoking or restricting its sale would merely produce an uncontrolled black market.

"There just will not be the death and illness to such an extent from so few people smoking, and the fastest way to do that is to get rid of the product off the shelves," Dr Glover said.

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