Page 97 - TAIWAN TOBACCO CONTROL ANNUAL REPORT 2019

Prohibiting the sales and purchases of tobacco products amongst underage minors Results of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) of 2018 show that close to 50% of all junior high school students who smoke can purchase their own cigarettes (45.7%); over 50% are not refused by stores when buying cigarettes (57.2%); and most purchases are made in traditional stores (55.6%). Moreover, 71.3% of all high school and vocational students who smoke can purchase their own cigarettes, 69.2% are not refused by stores when buying cigarettes, and most purchases are made in convenience stores (52.4%). Hence, the purchase of tobacco products by minors became a major area of concern for tobacco control. To determine the compliance of tobacco retailers to the law prohibiting the sales of tobacco products to minors, the undercover buying inspections was applied to 660 tobacco vendors across 22 counties and cities from April to September of 2018. Results showed that 42.7% of all four major chains of convenience store, supermarkets, malls, betel nut vendors, and traditional grocery stores surveyed violated the law and sold products to minors.(Fig. 2-2) Violation rates for major convenience store was 28.0% but reached as high as 59.7% and 47.4% for betel nut vendors and traditional grocery stores respectively. Violation rates dropped to below 50% in 2018. As for the improvement of violation ratios between 2012 and 2018, convenience stores showed the most significant improvement (46.4%) followed by supermarket chains or large retailers (41.4%), traditional stores (29.6%), and betel nut kiosks (23.9%). This clearly indicates that employee training, the mystery shopper program, and shop visits for educational purposes implemented by major chains of convenience stores have been highly effective (Fig. 2-3). Fig. 2-2 Investigation on violation rate of tobacco sellers on the rate of selling tobacco to teenagers for years of 2009-2018 70.0 60.0 50.0 46.2 % 40.0 30.0 20.0 10.0 59.1 55.0 54.7 52.6 45.9 42.7 37.8 48.2 31.8 0.0 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018Year Violation rate of various types of tobacco selling locations in 2009-2018 Chain convenien stores Chain supermarkets or superstores Traditional store Betel nut kiosks Fig. 2-3 100 90 78.4 70 78 75.3 67.3 78.7 66.4 80 75.7 60 56.5 70.5 63.9 68.9 60 53.4 55 51.2 59.3 59.7 54.9 57.1 46.2 % 50 50 53.7 40 47.1 47.8 38.8 41.1 36.2 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 38.9 47.4 30.5 41 29.5 30 33.5 29.3 20 23 24.5 19.6 28 11.8 10 0 15.5 2015 2016 2017 2018 Year 95 () () Reducing the Supply of Tobacco