Undercover Investigation of Convenience Stores: Exposing stores that sell tobacco to minors

The smoking rate among youths in Taiwan is on the rise. Youths who use tobacco either bought it or received it from schoolmates according to our Youth Tobacco Survey. Most tobacco purchases occurred at convenience stores, where 1/3 of junior high students and 2/3 of senior high students who smoke made their purchases in convenience stores. 73 % of those youths were not asked their age. To enforce compliance of the Tobacco Hazards Prevention and Control Act, which makes illegal the sale of tobacco to minors, the Bureau of Health Promotion in Taiwan, from 2005-07, subsidized the Consumer Foundation to send college students aged 18-20, dressed in senior high school uniforms, to convenience stores to purchase tobacco. It is worth mentioning that it is rare in our society for anyone but a police officer to ask people to show their IDs. From 2005-2007, we sampled 48-156 convenience stores among Taiwan's four major chains; 7-11, Hi-Life, Family Mart, and OK. Of those, only 33.3 % in 2005 and 29.6 % in 2006 did not sell tobacco to the disguised students. Compliance was gradually improved through anonymous inspection, data disclosure, education, training and direct dialogue with chain store headquarters. Media exposure, via press conferences at the beginning of 2007, proved to be the most powerful method of making retailers comply. By the end of 2007, compliance of the law had increased to 57.7%.