NORWICH – Local anti-tobacco advocates say that the Surgeon General’s Report on teen smoking today highlights a problem they’ve been talking about for some time: tobacco marketing targeting kids in convenience stores, pharmacies and other retail locations where tobacco is sold.

The report, titled Preventing Tobacco Use among Youth and Young Adults finds the nation is falling far short of our national youth smoking goals and calls for immediate and urgent action to protect children from the predatory marketing tactics of the tobacco industry.

“One way to reduce kids’ exposure to tobacco marketing is to prohibit the display of tobacco products in all retail establishments to which minors have access,” said James Mutabiilwa, Tobacco Free Chenango Coordinator at Chenango Health Network. “Abundant research, summarized in this latest report, shows that kids regularly exposed to retail tobacco displays are more likely to smoke.”

The tobacco industry lures kids to use and get addicted to cigarettes through the use of prominent cigarette product displays, sometimes referred to as “power walls” behind the cash register in retail environments. In New York, over 80% of retailers that sell tobacco devote 50% or more of the merchandising space behind the checkout counters to tobacco displays. The amount of space that tobacco products take up in the stores that kids go into is astonishing – an average of 32 square feet in licensed tobacco retailers, and even more - 50 to 60 square feet in NYS pharmacies and other mass merchandisers. When children see such extensive tobacco product displays it distorts their perceptions regarding the availability of cigarettes and increases the likelihood that they will start smoking.

“When I go into a convenience store, I feel like I have a target on my back,” said Megan Rogers, a senior at Sherburne Earlville School. “In-store tobacco ads are placed at kid eye level, often near toys, candy and snacks. Tobacco companies see me, and even kids younger than me, as their next generation of smokers.”

Key findings/recommendations of the report include:

• The tobacco industry has stated that its marketing only promotes brand choices among adult smokers. Regardless of intent, this marketing encourages underage youth to smoke. Nearly 9 out of 10 smokers start smoking by age 18, and more than 80% of underage smokers choose brands from among the top three most heavily advertised.

• The more young people are exposed to cigarette advertising and promotional activities, the more likely they are to smoke.

• The report finds that extensive use of price-reducing promotions has led to higher rates of tobacco use among young people than would have occurred in the absence of these promotions.

• Many tobacco products on the market appeal to youth. Some cigarette-sized cigars contain candy and fruit flavoring, such as strawberry and grape.