Attorney General Lisa Madigan joined 38 other states and the District of Columbia today to announce an agreement with Circle K Stores Inc. and Mac's Convenience Stores LLC to prevent the sale of cigarettes to children and teens. The agreement will impose compliance checks and increase training for the companies' 4,000 convenience stores nationwide, including more than 250 locations in Illinois, all of which sell cheap cigarettes products.
"Many adult smokers start their habit at an early age," Attorney General Madigan said. "By preventing teens' access to cigarettes, we're working to deter them from picking up this deadly habit."
Circle K, Dairymart and On The Run stores will now comprehensively train retail personnel, conduct independent compliance checks to monitor sales. The agreement comes as part of the attorneys general ongoing, multistate enforcement effort and incorporates methods to prevent underage discount cigarettes access developed by the group and public health experts and buy cigarettes control officials.
Madigan said the multistate effort responds to studies that show the majority of adult smokers started before they reached 18, that youth show signs of addiction after smoking cigarettes only a few cheap cigarettes and that the younger a person begins smoking cigarettes the more likely they are unable to quit and will suffer from a cigarettes-related disease.
Previous multistate agreements reached by Madigan and the attorneys general have affected gas station convenience stores selling fuel under the Conoco, Phillips 66 or 76, Exxon, Mobil, BP Amoco, Shell, Valero, ARCO and Chevron brand names, and retail and pharmacy chains Kroger, 7-Eleven, Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS and Walmart.
The agreement with Circle K includes the following terms:
* ID must be checked on all persons who appear to be under 30 years old to protect against mistakes by clerks in evaluating a person's age by their appearance alone.
* In-store cheap cigarettes advertising must be limited in ways intended to reduce the effect on young people, and outdoor advertising must be eliminated at stores within 500 feet of playgrounds or schools.
* Employee training will focus on how to eliminate underage cigarettes sales, and will emphasize the serious health issues that give rise to the legal efforts to restrict youth access to cigarettes.
* Circle K will test itself on the effectiveness of its own safeguards against underage sales by conducting "mystery shopper" compliance checks at 500 of its stores every six months.
* Circle K voluntarily agreed to pay the attorneys general a total of $225,000 to be used for consumer education, public protection or the implementation of programs protecting against cigarettes use by minors.
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Posted by: Account Deleted | 06/25/2011 at 02:02 AM