A CRACKDOWN on rogue tobacco products being sold in shops across East Lancashire has been launched.

A survey of 60 shops with-in the area’s Asian community found nine were selling products to under-18s, and without the required health warnings.

Trading Standards bosses said there was growing concern about the availability of other types of tobacco, such as shisha and chewing tobacco, that were increasingly being used, particularly in the Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities.

County Coun Albert Atkinson said: “Users of all tobacco products need to be fully aware of the health dangers of these types of product, as well as their addictive nature.

"Retailers need to be ensuring that all tobacco products are correctly labelled with the required health warnings and that they are only sold to people over the age of 18.”

Dr Sohail Bhatti, from NHS East Lancashire Primary Care Trust, said: “We are working to raise awareness of niche tobacco products and their health impacts.

“We need to better inform retailers to effectively cont-rol the availability of tob-acco products, and continue to provide programmes to help people stop.”

The county council said it was often the case that such products were not viewed by users as having the same health risks as smoking cigarettes.

But a recent World Health Organisation report found that 30 minutes of smoking a shisha is the equivalent of smoking 100 filtered cigarettes.

And holding one pinch of chewing tobacco in your mouth for 30 minutes delivers as much nicotine as four cigarettes.

There is also concern that products may be attractive to children, particularly chewing tobacco that comes in brightly-coloured foil packs.

Traders wanting further advice can contact Trading Standards on 01772 532145.