Anti-Tobacco Measures Showing Impact May 29, 2001
News Summary
As a result of tobacco bans and education programs, U.S. states are reporting a reduction in sales to underage smokers, the Kansas City Star reported May 20.Nationwide, better enforcement and education programs aimed at teens, sales clerks, and store managers are starting to have an effect in lowering the number of underage youth able to buy tobacco products. According to recent federal data on states conducting undercover checks of stores, only 18.2 percent of stores allowed minors to buy cigarettes, a drop from 40 percent in 1997.
Also making an impact is the federal Synar Amendment, which requires states to conduct random, undercover inspections of tobacco merchants to determine their compliance with state laws against selling to minors. States that fail to reduce violation rates to 20 percent or less risk losing part of their federal Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment block grants.
Missouri and Kansas are two states reporting a significant reduction in underage tobacco-buying. In Missouri, 15 percent of merchants sold to underage volunteers, while in Kansas, 23 percent allowed the sales. Two years earlier, 35 percent sold to kids.
"We feel it's a success story," said Andrew O'Donovan, director of the Office of Prevention at the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. He attributes the success to anti-smoking education efforts in schools and communities.
"There's a lot of activity. We feel folks are getting the message," added Michael Couty, director of the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse.
In 1998, Missouri's compliance was so poor that the state nearly lost its federal block-grant funds. The U.S. Senate changed the rules to allow states like Missouri to keep their funding if they agreed to spend additional money of their own for enforcement and prevention.
According to Joseph DiFranza, a University of Massachusetts physician who has been studying state efforts to comply with the Synar Amendment, the most successful states are Florida, Maine, Vermont and Texas. In those states, no more than 10 percent of merchants sold tobacco to minors.
"These successful states have shown that effective enforcement can be achieved if the state government is committed to that goal," DiFranza said.
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