The city’s top consumer-protection watchdog boasted yesterday that New York City beats the state and nation in stopping tobacco sales to kids.
In 7,811 inspections over the past year of stores that sell tobacco, 1,302 shops were caught selling to underage teens – an 83 percent compliance rate, the best the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs has seen in three years.
Nationwide, there is a 71 percent compliance rate, and New York state has a 74 percent rate, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“We’re going to continue to burn tobacco retailers who sell to minors,” said Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jane Hoffman, whose department employs undercover teens to sting vendors.
She said tough enforcement has boosted the compliance rate in the five boroughs from 64 percent last year.
Under a law adopted in August, vendors who sell tobacco to kids under age 18 can be fined up to $1,000 for a first offense and up to $2,000 for a second offense. Their licenses can be revoked for three violations overall, or for two violations within a two-year period.
Four retailers recently have had their tobacco licenses yanked, and 10 more face possible license revocation, Hoffman said. And vendors who violated the law are facing up to $466,400 in combined fines.
Hoffman said Consumer Affairs in the past five years has boosted its underage tobacco sales budget from $10,000 to $750,000. Asked if the spending was justified by the relatively small number of license revocations, Hoffman replied: “It’s not about how many suspensions you get, it’s about getting them to stop selling tobacco to minors.”
She also asserted that because “kids are buying less, they must be smoking less,” but acknowledged, “We’re working at looking at the statistics.”
Jovonne, a 16-year-old from Staten Island who gets paid $6.25 per hour by Consumer Affairs for his undercover tobacco work, said, “I get cut on a little bit” by friends for busting vendors.
“But they understand what I do and they respect what I do.”