In recent years, many countries including the UK have taken significant action to try and reduce the number of people who smoke. One of the first major steps came in 2003, when tobacco advertising was banned. A few years later in 2007, it became illegal to smoke in public buildings.
Now the UK is taking further action and introduced a ban in April 2012 to stop shops from displaying cigarettes, similar to bans that already exist in some other countries such as Iceland and Norway. One of the aims of the display ban is to try and make cigarettes less tempting to young people but while it has many supporters, some have taken objection to the action. For instance, some small retailers and big tobacco firms are against the ban as they think it could harm business. Read in full