Youth Access Tobacco Enforcement Program Annual Report October 1, 2010 - March 31, 2012 Questions or requests for additional copies of this report: New York State Department of Health Bureau of Community Environmental Health & Food Protection Tobacco Enforcement Program Empire State Plaza - Corning Tower Room 1395 Albany, New York 12237 Telephone: (518) 402-7600 Fax: (518) 402-7609 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks go to the local health department enforcement officers, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs and the youth who participated in the access compliance check surveillance program. For more than 14 years, these dedicated agencies and individuals have been the leaders in the State’s effort to increase retailer compliance with the public health law in our communities. Staff of the New York State Department of Health’s Bureau of Community Environmental Health and Food Protection, Tobacco Enforcement Program prepared this report with data provided from the local enforcement officers, other state agencies and programs within the Department of Health. The New York State Department of Health’s Tobacco Control Program and the New York State Education Department supplied information regarding tobacco use and trends among minors. The State Department of Taxation and Finance provided registration and revenue data. The Department of State’s Office of Fire Prevention and Control supplied data regarding fires. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 3 PROGRAM OVERVIEW………………………………………………………………………. 6 PROGRAM PURPOSE ………………………………………………………………………… 9 STATUS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS …………………………………………………….… 9 APPENDICES ……………………………………………………………………………………19 APPENDIX 1: Number and Type of Investigations, October 1, 2010 - March 31, 2012. APPENDIX 1A: Sale to Minor Violation Rate by County, 6 year Summary APPENDIX 2: Penalized Tobacco Retailers and Vendors, October 1, 2010 - March 31, 2012. APPENDIX 3: Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) Comparison – New York State Results for 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011 APPENDIX 4: 2010 National Youth Tobacco Survey - New York State Results APPENDIX 5: Allocation of Tobacco Enforcement Program Funding, October 1, 2010 - March 31, 2012. APPENDIX 6: New York State Fire Reporting System Tobacco Related Fire Statistics, October 1, 2009 – September 30, 2010. 2 PREFACE The purpose of New York’s Adolescent Tobacco Use Prevention Act is to aid in reducing morbidity and mortality caused by tobacco use by reducing children’s access to cigarettes and other tobacco products. It has been well documented that most smokers begin before they are 18 years old and half before they are 15. Many people who start smoking as youth find it nearly impossible to quit during their lifetimes. For more than 14 years, state and local enforcement officials have been increasingly successful at reducing youth access to tobacco products and improving retailer compliance with the Adolescent Tobacco Use Prevention Act, realizing a reduction in the rate of non-compliance by retailers from 19% in 1997 to 4.99% in 2011-12. The Adolescent Tobacco Use Prevention Act requires retailers to obtain positive proof that the person buying cigarettes is over the age of 18. Retailers found in violation of this law are subject to fines and loss of their tobacco registrations and lottery licenses for repeated violations. The law also limits the location of vending machines and limits the venues in which free tobacco products can be distributed. These enforcement measures are aimed at making tobacco products less accessible to minors and are a part of the State's $45.6 million comprehensive anti-smoking program (2011 expenditures). This Annual Report is prepared by the Tobacco Enforcement Program, located in the New York State Department of Health’s Center for Environmental Health. The report covers the period October 1, 2010 to March 31, 2012. The report includes the following information: Number of tobacco compliance checks that were conducted; Names and addresses of tobacco vendors who sold tobacco products to underage youth and were penalized; 3 New York State results of the 2010 National Youth Tobacco Survey; Tobacco sales data from the State Department of Taxation and Finance; and Tobacco-related fire injury data from the Department of State’s Fire Reporting System. During the 2010 – 2011 program year, state and local enforcement officers conducted 31,100 inspections of tobacco retailers to assess compliance with the State’s Public Health Law (Adolescent Tobacco Use Prevention Act). Of these inspections, more than 24,268 included unannounced compliance checks where minors attempted to purchase tobacco under the direct supervision of the enforcement officials. Over 6,800 additional visits were made to determine compliance with Department of Health signage requirements and Department of Taxation and Finance registration requirements, to educate retailers about the Public Health Law, to verify vending machine supervision and location compliance and to investigate complaints. A total of 1,313 enforcement actions were taken for sales of tobacco products to minors and more than $1.174 million in fines were assessed. During the period from October 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012 an additional 15,754 inspections were conducted, 11,951 of which included unannounced compliance checks with minors. A total of 3,803 additional visits were made to determine compliance with other aspects of the Public Health Law and the Department of Taxation and Finance registration requirements. A total of 478 enforcement actions were taken and $346,100 in fines were assessed during this period. In the last 14 program years, state grants totaling nearly $59.8 million have been awarded to local enforcement officials to implement the Tobacco Enforcement Program, which resulted in a decline in the rate of non-compliance by retailers from 19.0 percent to 4.99 percent. From September 1997- March 2012, more than $27.6 million in fines have been levied against 38,018 retailers for selling 4 tobacco to minors. The Department of Taxation and Finance has suspended the registrations of 2,715 tobacco retailers as a result of multiple enforcement actions for selling tobacco to underage youth. There were also 722 lottery agent licenses suspended for multiple sales to minors. Of the 530,497 compliance inspections that have taken place during the 14 years, 380,037 were conducted with the assistance of minors attempting to purchase tobacco products. 5 New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Center for Environmental Health Youth Access Tobacco Enforcement Program Annual Report October 1, 2010 – March 31, 2012 Program Overview In March 2012, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) completed its fourteenth program year of youth tobacco access enforcement statewide. As part of the State’s continued commitment to preventing youth access to tobacco, $8.295 million was awarded to local enforcement officers to determine and enforce retail tobacco vendor compliance with Article 13-F of the Public Health Law, also known as the Adolescent Tobacco Use Prevention Act (ATUPA). This report covers the eighteen month period from October 1, 2010 to March 31, 2012. The ATUPA enforcement program is part of the State's comprehensive anti-smoking and tobacco control initiative, the New York Tobacco Control Program (NY TCP). In 2011-2012, the NY TCP was funded through a state appropriation of $41.4 million and a grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of $4.161 million. The NY TCP targets tobacco use by promoting cessation, reducing the social acceptability of tobacco use, preventing youth initiation, addressing disproportionately high smoking rates in specific population groups and eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke. The NY TCP uses a multi-pronged strategic approach to reduce tobacco use in the population and seeks to impact the population as a whole through: Statewide and community action to change the community environment to support the tobacco-free norm, change community attitudes about tobacco and de-normalize tobacco use. A key outcome of the NY TCP’s community mobilization strategy is the adoption and effective implementation of local and statewide policies that permanently change society’s acceptance of tobacco use. Health communication to increase awareness of the dangers of tobacco use and secondhand smoke and motivate tobacco users to stop, to expose tobacco industry propaganda and de- glamorize tobacco use and educate community members and decision makers about tobacco control. A key outcome of the NY TCP’s health communication strategy is better-educated 6 community members and decision makers who will support effective tobacco control policies and take personal action toward a tobacco-free New York. Cessation interventions to establish and maintain community, governmental and health care delivery systems that promote cessation, increase access to and delivery of evidence-based cessation services and motivate individual tobacco users to quit successfully. Key outcomes of the NY TCP’s cessation interventions are provision of guideline-concordant tobacco dependence treatment by the health care sector and adoption of policies that motivate smokers and other tobacco users to quit. The NY TCP is supported by surveillance and evaluation activities to monitor program progress and impact and by program administration to provide technical assistance and guidance and manage the effective and efficient investment of state tobacco control funding.