More than 200,000 young Thais buy single cigarettes because they cannot afford to buy packs, according to a story in The Nation quoting a public-health researcher from Mahidol University.
Saranya Benjakul cited a 2011 survey that found also that more than 400,000 Thais aged 15-18 were smokers.
The poll results are being given another airing as the government gets ready to pass a new tobacco-control bill that, in part, will ban the sale of single cigarettes.
The bill has come under fire, partly from tobacco growers who believe that some of the bill’s measures will negatively affect their livelihoods.
Nanthawan Wichitwathakarn, a public-health lecturer at Thammasat University, has urged tobacco business operators, for the sake of children, to stop objecting to the ban on the sale of individual cigarettes.
Nanthawan said the sale of individual cigarettes was encouraging young people to smoke because they could not see the warning messages and disgusting pictures on cigarette packs.
The sale of individual cigarettes had already been prohibited in 97 countries, including Laos, Singapore and Brunei, she added.