According to the study by Dr. Joseph R. DiFranza of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester and colleagues, enforcing cigarette bans costs about one penny per pack of cigarettes, but could save 10 times as many lives as the same amount of money spent on mammograms or screening for colorectal cancer.

The study's findings were based on an analysis of states' progress reports on enforcement of laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors. "Some states, like Wyoming, have never enforced laws that penalize merchants for selling tobacco to minors," DiFranza said. "Florida, Vermont and Maine on the other hand, have been able to achieve compliance with the prohibition of tobacco to minors about 90 percent of the time. This means that when underage kids are sent in to a store to buy cigarettes by law-enforcement groups, 90 percent of the time they are turned down."

The study is published in the journal Preventive Medicine.

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