Abstract
Although the health harms of tobacco are well established, tobacco remains widely available in Australia. In Western Australia (WA), as Wood et al. note, there were more than 100 licensed tobacco retailers per 100,000 capita in July 2025, with higher retail density in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas—areas where residents are more likely to experience tobacco-related harm.
Wood et al. explore the potential impact, in terms of reducing the number of tobacco retailers, of several hypothetical scenarios targeting retailers, including restricting or prohibiting sales from certain retailer types and not permitting tobacco to be sold within close proximity to schools. In accordance with this, we measured public support for reducing tobacco availability both in general and with respect to specific reduction scenarios.
