For South Asian merchant compliance with California's STAKE ACT, constant vigilance helps

Background: California's STAKE Act prohibits all retailers of tobacco products from selling tobacco products to minors. Many retailers in California's South Asian communities are not aware that this law also prohibits the sale of such South Asian smokeless tobacco products as Gutka, paan masala and Zarda. Merchant surveys and direct observation of retail stores were used to established compliance status. A health education campaign targeted initially noncompliant stores.

Method: A pre-post uncontrolled design was used to evaluate the 6-month impact of a tobacco control health education effort targeted to the subset of 68 merchants who were non-compliant with the State's STAKE Act.

Main results: Nearly 30 percent of merchants at baseline were not aware of STAKE Act requirements. At 6-month follow-up, 100% of the merchants knew what state law required. Consistent with the improved knowledge of the law, compliance with the law improved from 43% to 82%. On the downside, 28% of the stores [N=8] that were initially compliant and therefore did not receive education about the STAKE Act, were NOT compliant with the STAKE Act at follow-up assessment.

Conclusions and recommendations: The merchant tobacco use prevention education program was effective in increasing knowledge and increasing merchants' compliance with the STAKE Act. Health education should target initially compliant stores as well as non-compliant stores for maximum impact. Getting merchants to agree to publicize their store's compliance with the STAKE Act also appears to increase compliance at 6 months follow-up.