Availability of tobacco products to young people

According to the 2018 HBSC study, almost half of 15-year-olds who had smoked in the preceding month – 51.9% of boys and 42.2% of girls (Figure A2A-6) – had already bought cigarettes themselves in a retail setting (store, kiosk, bar, or restaurant) or a vending machine (Delgrande et al., 2019a[1]). An even larger proportion of young smokers had obtained cigarettes by means of friends, parents, brothers and sisters, or other people they knew. Finally, even if a smaller proportion of students (who had smoked in the preceding 30 days) reported these types of sources for their cigarettes, around one-fifth of these young people revealed that they had obtained cigarettes from strangers – 18.8% of girls and 19.9% of boys – and/or by taking them without permission, or by stealing – 20.3% of girls and 15.4% of boys. To be clear, on-line purchases were not specifically taken into account in this study. It is probable, however, that the period of the COVID-19 pandemic pushed young people toward this means of obtaining them.

Figure A2A-6 – Means of obtaining cigarettes among 15-year-old students who had smoked in the 30 days preceding the study (multiple responses possible), according to gender, HBSC 2018 (Delgrande et al., 2019a[2]).

The Monitorage suisse des addictions also collected data about sources of tobacco products used by young people 15 to 20 years old (Kuendig et al., 2017[3]). Essentially, 71.4% of 15 to 17-year-old smokers reported still buying their cigarettes personally (82% for all 15 to 20-year-olds). In this group, 68.9% reported usually buying their cigarettes at a kiosk. Among those smokers who not always or never bought their cigarettes personally, the majority got their cigarettes from colleagues, and a few from their parents.

[1] Delgrande Jordan, Marina ; Schneider, Eva ; Eichenberger, Yvonne ; Kretschmann, Andrea. (2019a). La consommation de substances psychoactives des 11 à 15 ans en Suisse - Situation en 2018 et évolutions depuis 1986 - Résultats de l'étude Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) (Rapport de recherche No 100). Lausanne: Addiction Suisse. Download.

[2] Delgrande Jordan, Marina ; Schneider, Eva ; Eichenberger, Yvonne ; Kretschmann, Andrea. (2019a). La consommation de substances psychoactives des 11 à 15 ans en Suisse - Situation en 2018 et évolutions depuis 1986 - Résultats de l'étude Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) (Rapport de recherche No 100). Lausanne: Addiction Suisse. Download.

[3] Kuendig, Hervé; Notari, Luca; Gmel, Gerhard (2017). Le tabagisme chez les 15 à 25 ans en 2016 - Analyse des données du Monitorage suisse des addictions. Lausanne : Addiction Suisse. Download.

AT Switzerland, September 2022