Local anti-smoking forces on Monday said city government isn’t doing enough with only a limited ordinance to prevent youths from smoking.

Tuesday, September 28, 1999

Local anti-smoking forces on Monday said city government isn’t doing enough with only a limited ordinance to prevent youths from smoking.

And, while the city ordinance remains weak, teen-age smoking is on the rise in Albert Lea and Freeborn County, representatives of the Stop Teen Access to Tobacco Committee told the City Council. The committee was formed in 1997 &uot;to work together as a community to stop teen-age tobacco use.&uot;

The city now requires a separate license for every city tobacco retailer, prevents the sale and giveaway of tobacco products to minors, provides no license to movable retailers and prevents tobacco giveaways on public property.

But it doesn’t include fines and compliance checks that target retailers who illegally sell tobacco to minors, although the state now mandates such compliance checks. The city also doesn’t prevent the use of self-serving tobacco machines.

While the council could include several stricter options into a new ordinance, the retail compliance checks were stressed Monday as one way to toughen the ordinance.

During compliance checks, minors working with police attempt to purchase tobacco from retailers. If purchases are successful, retailers can face criminal penalties.

The undercover checks are one way the City Council can toughen its ordinance to help prevent the sale of tobacco products to minors, said Albert Lea Police Lieutenant Phil Bartusek, chairman of the committee.

He asked the council to adopt a tobacco ordinance that is similar to the county’s, including the compliance checks. Approved in December of 1997, the county ordinance is seven pages long.

Bartusek said the Albert Lea Police Department did conduct three compliance checks in a one-year period that ended in 1998. While 11 of 17 retailers sold tobacco to a minor during the first check, the statistics improved with each check. Of the 45 retailers checked in the final sting, all were compliant.

But there hasn’t been a compliance check in Albert Lea since because the city hasn’t included checks into its ordinance as required by the Legislature in 1997.

&uot;We hope you pass an updated ordinance to make Albert Lea a healthier community for our youth,&uot; he said.

&uot;The city needs to look at whether you’re in compliance with state statutes,&uot; added Erin O’Brien, assistant Freeborn County attorney and committee member. &uot;Should the city be doing it? Yes.&uot;

While the state provides no funds for the checks, it doesn’t limit the amount city and county governments can charge for tobacco license fees, she said. The city can use this revenue to fund the checks.

Availability, a rise in numbers

&uot;I’m very sympathetic to putting more into the ordinance,&uot; Albert Lea Mayor Marv Wangen said after listening to several people talk about the availability of tobacco to minors, and the associated health risks. &uot;If you go around the schools, you can see them smoking.&uot;

Two separate 1998 studies did show a rise in tobacco use among children in Freeborn County and Albert Lea schools. Among Albert Lea ninth-graders, as an example, the number of &uot;heavy cigarette&uot; smokers increased from 4.4 percent in 1992 to 10 percent in 1999.

Heavy cigarette use by children is described as more than a half a pack a day for a 30-day period, the Albert Lea study states, adding that 1.5 percent of sixth-graders are included in this category.

But what was described as more frightening is how these children are obtaining cigarettes.

In the sixth-grade category, 17 percent of those surveyed say they purchased tobacco at gas stations and convenience stores; 10 percent said they purchased tobacco at grocery, discount and drug stores.

One 16-year-old girl who worked during the checks said some retailers even checked her identification and still sold her tobacco.

&uot;I find this a real area of concern that sixth-graders can go into a convenience store and get their tobacco,&uot; said Carol Bosma, District 241 nurse. &uot;Albert Lea Area Schools is very concerned about tobacco use among our student populations.&uot;

&uot;If current trends continue, more than five million youths will eventually die from some tobacco illness,&uot; added Jane Madson, a committee member from Albert Lea Medical Center.

The city will hold a workshop to discuss the ordinance.