Keeping kids away from tobacco

The Kingston Whig-Standard
Sat 20 Nov 2004

Those who recall the tobacco industry's much ballyhooed campaign in Kingston to discourage cigarette sales to minors - Operation I.D. - and the many relationships Operation I.D. forged with community partners can now see the campaign's real value in recent figures showing local cigarette sales to minors on the rise ("Local sales of cigarettes to minors on rise: Latest sting catches 30% of retailers"(Nov. 17).

Increasing sales of cigarettes to minors in communities like Kingston, which have been particular targets of the tobacco industry's campaign, once again prove that unenforceable public relations campaigns like Operation I.D. cannot effectively keep cigarettes away from young people who want to get them. Nor can they convince the retail community to comply with such restrictions on a consistent, long-term basis.

The only way to keep the tobacco industry away from our kids is through a comprehensive program that includes significant tax increases, smoke- free spaces, the elimination of all advertising and promotion, enforceable restrictions on sales to minors, anti-tobacco advertising campaigns in the media and other community programming interventions.

Together, these programs make clear to our young people that the tobacco industry isn't their friend, and that tobacco industry products will be a source of lost revenue, personal anguish and serious negative health consequences for many of tobacco's users.

Michael Perley
Director
Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco