Results of Tobacco Enforcement Compliance Checks Announced

Published on: 2014/09/12 - in Featured News

This week, results from the most recent round of Kingston area tobacco enforcement checks were released by KFL&A Public Health.

The benchmark for compliance, as set out for all public health agencies by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, is 90%. The most recent compliance rate for vendors who did not sell tobacco to minors in the KFL&A region – according to Dave McWilliam, manager, Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention with KFL&A Public Health – was 92%.

Vendors and retailers who sell cigarettes receive a variety of resources and opportunities to comply with tobacco enforcement laws, including the visual age identifier on Ontario driver’s licences.

In addition, McWilliam reported that training of employees and education resources, age calculator wheels, and bulletins that were distributed four times a year provide assistance to stores. These resources are made available to all tobacco products selling retailers by KFL&A Public Health.

Enforcement checks utilised a 17 year old shopper who was hired to go to vendors with their personal driver’s licence bearing the correct birth date and age identifier.

The enforcement checks took place on August 29 and September 8, with over 150 stores visited in the KFL&A area and only 12 retailers being non-compliant and selling tobacco products to the young shopper.

“We know the most important factor to ensure that employees do not sell tobacco to youth is training,” said McWilliam. He stated that every new hire needs to be completely trained before they make any sales transactions, and that they need to take responsibility for using that training.

A Youth Smoking Survey conducted by Health Canada on school children in grades 6-12 during the 2012-2013 school year determined that youth in Ontario who had ever tried smoking a cigarette was 21% – unchanged from their survey held in 2010-2011.

Canada-wide, the number of students in grade 6 to 9 who have ever tried smoking a cigarette decreased to 13%. That is down significantly from the first survey of that age group conducted in 1994, where 45% of students in that age group admitted to having ever smoked a cigarette.

KFL&A Public Health report that the employees at the following retail outlets sold tobacco to a person younger than 19 in the recent enforcement checks:

Queen’s Convenience, 281 MacDonnell St., Kingston
Metro, 310 Barrie St., Kingston
Downtown Lotto, 120 Princess St., Kingston
Wannamaker’s, 12293 Hwy. 41, Northbrook
Northbrook Gas & Variety, 12428 Hwy 41., Northbrook
Esso -Oops Express, 1141 Cty Rd. 6, Odessa
Buck Bay Marina, 2263 Green Bay Road, West, RR2, Godfrey
Food Basics, 33 Barrack St., Kingston
Loblaw’s, 1100 Princess St., Kingston
On Larocks Bar & Grill, 66 Concession St., Kingston
Topper’s Convenience, 1 Carlton Drive, Verona
Ultramar, 967 Sir John A. MacDonald Blvd., Kingston


Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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