The Honorable Mildred Dover, Minister of Health and Social Services, is pleased to announce the results of the latest compliance checks on tobacco sales to minors. This is a measure under a Federal/Provincial agreement to enforce the Provincial Tobacco Sales to Minors Act and the Federal Tobacco Sales to Young Persons Act.
The compliance checks are conducted by officials with the Environmental Health Division of the Queens Health Authority. The first compliance check was conducted in November, 1996. One hundred and one establishments were visited and 63 were not in compliance with the legislation. The second compliance check was done in January, 1997. Ninety two establishments were visited, including 55 of the 63 which had been non-compliant in November.
Only three of the 55 were non-compliant a second time and these were issued with a warning ticket. Of the 37 establishments checked for the first time, 12 were found to be non-compliant. The non-compliance rate dropped from 63% in November to 16% in January. Although the Minister is pleased with these results, the Environmental Health Officers will continue to conduct compliance checks and to educate those selling tobacco products.
This is especially important, in light of the statistics in the recently released report "Student Drug Use Survey, 1996" where 26% of students in grade 7 and 44% in grade 9 reported having smoked in 1996. Enforcement of the Tobacco Sales to Minors legislation is an important part of the struggle of trying to prevent youth from starting to smoke.