Local authority leaders have urged the Government to do more to help trading standards teams crack down on the use of menthol cigarettes.
A new study by researchers at University College London (UCL) has revealed that one in seven adult smokers are still using menthol cigarettes despite a ban being introduced in May 2020.
This amounts to 16% of adult smokers or almost one million people.
The study, which was published in the journal Tobacco Control, draws on responses from nearly 67,000 adults in England, Wales, and Scotland.
Cllr Heather Kidd, trading standards spokesperson for the Local Government Association (LGA), said that many councils were ‘struggling to fully staff their enforcement services’.
She added that local trading standards should ‘get the funding they need to properly enforce this ban’.
