Regulating duty free sales and tobacco advertising in airports: a call for action

National and international tobacco regulations (such as article 13 of the FCTC) have been promoted to prevent the tobacco industry from communicating with youth and other susceptible populations [3]. Despite the existence of such regulations, indoor tobacco billboards (Figure 1, Figure 2), industry-sponsored smoking rooms (Figure 3, Figure 4), and point of purchase advertising (Figure 5, Figure 6) are found within airports throughout the world, including those located within jurisdictions with tobacco advertising restrictions in place.Presented in vivid, colorful displays portraying brand names, themes, and logos (Figure 7), and often promoted by both salepersons and through promotional paraphernalia, airport point of sale advertising may stimulate tobacco purchases. Indeed, research has indicated that point of sale advertising has an impact on impulse purchases among current smokers, and recent quitters, with those more sensitive to such advertising less likely to remain abstinent [4-6]. When combined with the reduced price of tobacco products within airports, one can conceive the synergistic effect of reduced price and plethoric advertising which could facilitate impulse purchases, smoking relapse and circumvent one of the key aspects of tobacco control, which is taxation and product price regulation [7].Duty free sales undermine the purpose of taxation and harms public health by encouraging personal consumption. Research from a number of countries has indicated that the percentage of smokers consuming tobacco from a duty free source ranges from below 1% in the US, Canada and Australia, and up to 3.8% and 5.6% in New Zealand and the UK, respectively [7-9]. When one extrapolates the number of cigarettes smoked per capita per day from duty free sources to a global level one can grasp a hold of the loss of tax revenue that could be provided to support tobacco control efforts or population based health care coverage and thus the subsequent implications on global publi