Effects of retail environment regulations on reducing tobacco retailers and operating hours: a case study in Egypt

Background: The tobacco industry targets future generations to maintain its profits. One of its tactics is to maintain its presence noticed at the level of retail environment. Measures to address this high presence are identified in the literature. Our study examines the effects of six of these identified tobacco retail reduction measures in reducing the total number of tobacco retailers and the number of retailers within 500, 1000 and 2000 m from youth-oriented facilities.

Methods: Data were collected by scraping Google Places on examination points including locations, opening hours, type and subtype of tobacco retailers in addition to educational, youth, health and religious facilities. The six studied measures were enacted using Python codes to assess the reduction percentage. The measures included restricting tobacco retail outlets per density of population, requiring a minimum distance between tobacco retailers, banning tobacco retail outlets within a minimum distance from specific facilities, banning tobacco sale in specific retail outlets, restricting tobacco retail outlets per geographic area and limiting the number of hours in which tobacco can be sold.

Results: The data collected showed a high presence of tobacco retailers around vital facilities, particularly youth-oriented ones. The six scenarios implemented showcased a positive reduction in the number of tobacco retailers in total and around youth-oriented facilities. The total reduction of retailers varied from 4% up to total elimination of availability.

Discussion and conclusions: Our study presents an example of measurable reduction impact of six tobacco retail reduction measures. The high percentage in reduction achieved, especially around youth-oriented facilities, is worth the attention of policy-makers to be considered as countermeasures for the high tobacco industry presence in retail.