MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report
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MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. · May 1997
Illegal sales of cigarettes to minors--Mexico City, Mexico, 1997.
Because of the increasing prevalence of tobacco use among youth in the United States and Mexico, in 1996 the United States-Mexico Binational Commission (US-MBC) Health Working Group identified prevention of tobacco use, with an emphasis on adolescents, as one of its four priority health concerns. From 1970 to 1990, annual death rates for the leading causes of smoking-related deaths in Mexico nearly tripled and, in 1992, an estimated 10,253 persons in Mexico died as a result of smoking-related diseases, 9% of all deaths that year. ⋯ As part of the Mexican national program to reduce the prevalence of cigarette smoking among children and adolescents and in support of the goals of the US-MBC, during 1997 the General Directorate of Epidemiology (GDE) in the Secretariat of Health (SOH) conducted a survey of tobacco outlets in Mexico City to assess the percentage of retailers willing to sell cigarettes to minors. This report summarizes the results of the survey, which indicate that virtually no surveyed retailers asked minors attempting to purchase cigarettes about their age and that most retailers sold cigarettes to minors.