The AHA is pushing for new tobacco selling approaches. | Courtesy of Shutterstock
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Amanda Rupp | Sep 3, 2016

AHA encourages new tobacco selling approaches

The American Heart Association (AHA) recently released a comment encouraging U.S. pharmacies to reconsider their approaches for selling tobacco, especially after the latest information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The data, available in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, was gathered by Porter Novelli’s Summer Styles. This national survey discovered that 66 percent of adults are either strongly or semi in favor of stopping all tobacco product sales within retail pharmacy stores.

“The tremendous public support reflected in this survey for the removal of tobacco products from retail pharmacies’ shelves should be the final push they need to stop selling these products once and for all,” Nancy Brown, CEO of the AHA, said. “Our nation’s pharmacies are playing an increasingly important role in promoting health, and it is inconceivable to understand how any business involved in the health care delivery system can continue to sell a variety of tobacco products that are responsible for the deaths of millions of Americans.”

Information from the study supports that the public wants the sale of tobacco to stop within retail pharmacy stores, believing it is contradictory for these stores to sell tobacco products when they claim to promote healthy lifestyles.

“Two-thirds of American adults, including nearly half of cigarette smokers and nearly half of smokers of other tobacco products, support removing all tobacco from pharmacies,” Brown said. “We appeal to the remaining pharmacies to follow the lead of those who have already taken this bold action for the health of their customers. These national leaders and all pharmacies that have banned tobacco products deserve our highest praise. And for those pharmacies who haven’t, the message from the public you serve is clear: if you promote health, you should not be in the business of selling products that can lead to addiction and death.”

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