Internet sales of cigarettes to minors.

Full Abstract

CONTEXT: There is growing concern that the Internet might become a source of tobacco products for minors. Although researchers have studied tobacco sales to minors at retail outlets for more than a decade, there are no published studies of tobacco sales to minors via the Internet. OBJECTIVE: To determine the proportion of Internet cigarette vendors that will sell cigarettes to minors. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Cross-sectional study conducted in April-July 2001. Under adult supervision, 4 adolescents aged 11 to 15 years attempted to purchase cigarettes via 55 Internet cigarette vendors located in 12 states. These minors made a total of 83 purchase attempts, paying by credit card (n = 47) and by money order (n = 36). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Proportion of Internet cigarette vendors that sold cigarettes to minors. RESULTS: Minors successfully received cigarettes for 93.6% of credit card purchase attempts and for 88.9% of money order purchase attempts. Age was never verified for any of these deliveries. Internet vendors sent a total of 1650 packs of cigarettes to the underage adolescents in this study. CONCLUSION: Minors appear to have easy access to cigarettes via the Internet because many Internet vendors have weak or nonexistent age verification procedures.

Author information

Author/s: Ribisl, Kurt M (KM); Williams, Rebecca S (RS); Kim, Annice E (AE);

Affiliation: Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599-7440, USA. kurt_ribisl(-atsign-)unc.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Sep; vol 290 (issue 10) : pp 1356-9

Dates: Created 2003/09/10; Completed 2003/09/15; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12966128, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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