[Intl-tobacco] Research finds Internet cigarette sales present potential threat to public health

[Robert Weissman]

Research finds Internet cigarette sales present potential threat to
public health
Source: EurekAlert, 2001-12-10Contact: David Williamson

david_williamson@unc.edu

919-962-8596

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Research finds Internet cigarette sales present potential threat to
public health

(Embargoed) CHAPEL HILL - Using the five most popular computer
search engines to scour the Internet, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill researchers have found that cigarette vendors are
easy to locate online. They worry that children who cannot purchase
tobacco products in stores will go online to buy products damaging
to their health.

The researchers, led by Dr. Kurt M. Ribisl, assistant professor of
Health Behavior and Health Education at the UNC School of Public
Health, identified 88 vendors in 23 states. Nearly half -- 43 --
were located in New York State, and many were in tobacco-producing
states with low cigarette excise taxes. Indian reservations housed
49 of the 88 sites.

Only 28.4 percent carried U.S. Surgeon General health warnings that
are required by law to appear on all cigarette packages and
advertisements. Almost 20 percent failed to warn minors of minimum
age requirements.

A report on the study appears in the December issue of Tobacco
Control, a public health journal published by the British Medical
Journal. Co-authors are UNC graduate students Annice E. Kim and
Rebecca S. Williams.

"Nearly all sites -- 96.6 percent -- sold premium or value brand
cigarettes, such as Marlboro, which is the leading brand among
youth, and 21.6 percent sold duty-free Marlboros which are now
banned under the Master Settlement Agreement,” Ribisl said. “About
one in five offered standing orders that allow the buyer to receive
regular shipments of cigarettes each month.”

Internet cigarette vendors present new regulatory and enforcement
challenges for tobacco control advocates because of the difficulty
in regulating Internet content, he said. Many vendors are on Indian
reservations and regulating sales there also present complications
because they claim sovereignty and are less regulated by states and
the federal government.

Conducted in January, 2000, the study involved extensive Web surfing
by typing such phrases as "cheap cigarettes" and "discount
cigarettes" into the top 5 Internet search engines. Ribisl and his
students then reviewed more than 1,800 Web sites to identify the 88
Internet cigarette vendors operating in the United States.

The researchers said that the number of sites selling cigarettes
over the Internet has probably increased since they completed the
study, and they are planning a follow-up project to track growth in
the number of such vendors.

A second study appearing in the same issue, co-written by Drs.
Jennifer B. Unger and Louise Ann Rohrbach of the University of
Southern California and Ribisl, involved surveying more than 17,000
10th and 12th grade California students about their attempts to buy
cigarettes on the Internet.

That study found 2.2 percent of the adolescents asked had tried.
Most of those were younger students, males, frequent smokers and
teens who found it hard to get tobacco products elsewhere.

Younger adolescents may turn to the Internet to buy cigarettes since
they can more easily hide the fact that they are underage, the
authors wrote.  More monitoring and regulation are needed to prevent
the Internet from increasing as a source of tobacco for underage
adolescents.

Currently no federal laws make it illegal for Web sites to sell
tobacco products to children.

“Congress needs to pass legislation making it illegal to sell
cigarettes to children through the Internet," Ribisl said. “A few
states ban Internet tobacco sales to minors, but given that Internet
vendors are already located in half the states, federal legislation
is clearly needed."

Rhode Island, for example, bans Internet and mail order sales of
tobacco products without age verification at delivery, and violators
can be fined up to $1,000.

Cigarette smoking is the nation's leading cause of premature
sickness and death, Ribisl added. More than 47 million adults and 4
million teen-agers smoke. Annual sales of tobacco products top $40
billion.

###

Note: Ribisl can be reached at 919-843-8042 or kurt_ribisl@unc.edu.
He will check his voice mail every few hours on Sunday. Unger can be
reached at unger@hsc.usc.edu 626-457-4052.
School of Public Health Contact: Lisa Katz, 919-966-7467
News Services Contact: David Williamson, 962-8596

Note to editors: On Dec. 10, Congressman Martin Meehan of
Massachusetts is expected to introduce “The Tobacco-Free Internet
for Kids Act.” If passed, the legislation will prohibit the sale of
tobacco products through the Internet to people under age 18.