The ban on displaying cigarettes and tobacco in shops in the UK has reduced the risk of young people taking up smoking, according to a new study, BBC reported.

The display of tobacco products at the point of sale in larger stores was banned for the first time in England in April 2012. Similar laws came into force in Wales and Northern Ireland that same year, and in Scotland in April 2013. A complete ban, including small shops, came into effect across the UK in April 2015, the report said. Ministers hoped that the removal of cigarettes from view, would reduce the number of young people taking up smoking.
According to the report, researchers at the University of Stirling examined the impact of the policy on 11-16-year-olds who had never smoked. They interviewed a total of 3,791 young people, including 2,953 who had never smoked, before, during and after the law was introduced. The research, which has been published in the British Medical Journal's Tobacco Control, was funded by Cancer Research UK.
"Prior to the display ban, we found that young 'never smokers' who noticed cigarettes displayed at point-of-sale, and those who were aware of more cigarette brands, were more likely to indicate being susceptible to smoking. Both partial and full implementation of the display ban were followed by statistically significant reductions in youth smoking susceptibility and noticing cigarettes at point-of-sale," lead author Dr Allison Ford was quoted as saying.
Among their findings, they discovered that the "smoking susceptibility" of children who had never smoked decreased from 28 per cent pre-ban to 18 per cent post-ban. A total of 81 per cent of those interviewed noticed cigarettes at point-of-sale before the law came into force, compared to 28 per cent afterwards, the report said.