• Environment
• Advertising and Promotion
• Packaging and Labelling

This e-issue is the first devoted to the retail environment for tobacco products. It features research about regulating the consumer environment (packaging, labelling, and marketing) and the built environment (the quantity, type and location of retailers). The contents include studies from Australia, Canada, France, Greece, India, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Scotland, Switzerland, UK and USA—countries in which the consumer environment for tobacco differs markedly. In the USA, for example, stores that sell tobacco contain an average of 26 tobacco marketing materials (including branded signs and shelving units), and most advertise at least one discount, such as a special price for a multipack purchase.1 Conspicuously located near the cash register, a typical powerwall contains an average of 124 cigarette pack facings2 and makes a colourful display of deadly products with some of the world's smallest, weakest warning statements on the least visible (side) panel. Antitobacco signage, if any, is limited to age-of-sale warnings, some of which were created by the industry to promote corporate image.2 ,3

In many other countries, regulation of the consumer environment for tobacco indicates substantially more progress towards the endgame.4–6 Approximately one-third of countries ban tobacco advertising at the point of sale, and 15 of these ban retail displays, as well.7 Almost 40% of all countries have adopted pictorial warnings on packaging. In Australia, plain packaging has displaced the …