Lung Health News, Fall 2002 / Winter 2003
The American Lung Association of California launched a statewide ad campaign encouraging local policymakers to establish tobacco retailer licensing programs to reduce illegal tobacco sales to children. The association ran print ads in major California newspapers portraying the tobacco industry as the fox guarding the hen house.
Illegal sales of tobacco to children have increased for the second year in a row, jumping nearly 13 percent over 2001 and more than 50 percent over 2000, according to surveys conducted by the California Department of Health Services.
While local communities across California have been working to create effective licensing programs that would hold retailers accountable, the tobacco industry has been sabotaging those efforts by promoting its self-regulatory campaign, which encourages retailers to ask all young tobacco purchasers for identification.
"The tobacco industry is trying to make us believe it can regulate itself, but we know that is a deadly joke as revealed by internal tobacco industry documents," says Anne Kennedy, RRT, RCP, board chair for the American Lung Association of California.
