SHOPS that sell tobacco to young people are to be targeted in a drive to stamp out underage smoking.

Health chiefs are teaming up with trading standards officials to tackle illegal tobacco sales.

As part of the crackdown, they plan to encourage people to "shop" those places they suspect of selling cigarettes to the under-16s.

The project is a joint venture between the Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale Tobacco Alliance - part of the local primary care trust - and the county council's trading standards department.

Advertising space on 50 local buses is also being used to drive the message home. The adverts promote the trading standards department's hotline, (01609) 780780, using a poster which will be placed inside all the local EYMS buses.

The chairman of the bus group, Peter Shipp, said: "We are delighted to be associated with this project.

"It serves to make our buses into healthier forms of transport by supporting our existing no-smoking rule."

Trading standards officer Richard Flinton said: "It is well-known that children and young people smoke.

"This is in part due to them being able to buy cigarettes, whether directly from a shop or from a vending machine.

"By launching this hotline we hope to encourage people to report shops, and also premises with vending machines, that are known or suspected of selling cigarettes to young people."

"The number is completely confidential and we at the trading standards department will investigate all reports."

It is estimated that about 450 children start smoking every day in the UK, and by the age of 15, some 23 per cent of pupils are regular smokers.

Children who smoke are six times more susceptible to coughs, while bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma and other chronic respiratory illnesses are significantly more common. For adults, smoking is the greatest single cause of ill-health and premature death.