San Fernando Valley tobacco control project: The effectiveness of merchant education and citizen citations to combat illegal tobacco sales to youth phase 2c

The Healthy People 2010 Initiataive outlined a 10 year goal to decrease teen smoking rates below 16 percent but according to the CDC (2009) nearly 20% of teenagers are currents smokers. Access to tobacco is one of the risk factors associated with tobacco use among youth. Illegal tobacco sale rate among retailers in Los Angeles is approximately 40% and increases to 44% for retailers located within 1,000 feet of schools. The purpose of this project was to assess the enforcement and compliance of the STAKE Act Program (stop tobacco access to kid's enforcement) among licensed retailers in the 7th District of Los Angeles City through a merchant education and Citizen Citation program. This is a continuation of phase 2b of the original project conducted in 2006 where the researchers returned to stores that either renewed their tobacco retail licensure or stores in District 7 who purchased a new tobacco retail license. Data was collected from licensed retailers in the 7th District of the City of Los Angeles from October to November 2010 (N=70). Program results and future implications will be presented and discussed.