title: Tobacco compliance check in Hong Kong.
abstract: We examined tobacco retailers' rates of compliance to the law forbidding the sale of tobacco products to persons under 18 years of age in Hong Kong. The overall compliance rate was only 18.9%. The low compliance rate may be attributed to poor enforcement of the youth access law. Overseas experiences show that regular checking is an effective way to evaluate the compliance of tobacco retailers to restrictions on youth access to tobacco. Periodic tobacco compliance checks should be adopted in Hong Kong to exert pressure on law enforcement bodies and tobacco retailers.
authors.affiliation: Committee on Youth Smoking Prevention, Wan Chai, Hong Kong. kan@ysp.org.hk
authors.forename: Ming-yue
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Kan
authors.forename: Maggie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lau
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D016497:Adolescent Health Services; D003132:Commerce / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004335:Drug and Narcotic Control / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000379:methods; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D035846:Law Enforcement / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D012907:Smoking / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D012926:Social Control, Formal / Q000379:methods*; D012931:Social Environment; D019460:Tobacco Industry / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence