If you think that somewhere is ignoring the law and still allowing smoking, you can contact Rotherham Environmental Health or phone 01709 823114. You can also call the national compliance line on 0800 587 166 7.

It is illegal to sell cigarettes or tobacco products to people aged under 18. This was increased from 16 years in October 2007. Rotherham Trading Standards is responsible for tackling under-age sales and regularly carries out test purchases.

New law is planned that will make cigarette vending machines illegal from October 2011. Cigarettes and tobacco will also need to be removed from display or covered up in large stores by April 2012 and by April 2015 in smaller shops.

Illegal and smuggled cigarettes

Cigarette smuggling in the UK costs the Government £3 billion each year in lost tax that others then have to pay. The problem is not the people who buy their duty free allowance of cigarettes when they go on holiday, but the organised, large-scale smuggling of tobacco products.

Buying illegal or smuggled cigarettes is not, as many people think, a harmless activity. Cheap tobacco and cigarettes are frequently provided through organised gangs and sales increase criminal activity and nuisance in communities. They may be sold at markets, car boot sales, from ice-cream vans and ‘fag houses’. Sales are not regulated, meaning young people can easily buy illegal and smuggled cigarettes. Tobacco smuggling is a criminal activity, not a social service.

Many of the cigarettes sold illegally are counterfeit and contain poorer quality ingredients. Counterfeit cigarettes have been found to contain:

• significantly higher levels of toxins than in ordinary cigarettes
• rat and mouse droppings
• dead insects
• floor sweepings
• dust

Trading Standards and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs work together with the Police to seize smuggled cigarettes and to prosecute the people who sell them. If you think people are selling illegal tobacco or cigarettes, you can report it to Trading Standards or call them on 01709 254955.