Illegal sales of cigarettes to minors--Ciudad Juárez, Mexico; El Paso, Texas; and Las Cruces, New Mexico, 1999.

In 1996, the United States-Mexico Binational Commission (US-MBC) Health Working Group identified prevention of tobacco use, particularly among adolescents, as a priority and subsequently recommended joint efforts toward reducing illegal sales of cigarettes to minors. A 1997 survey of 561 commercial cigarette outlets in Mexico City found that 79% of retailers sold cigarettes to minors. To assess the illegal sale of cigarettes to minors in other regions of Mexico and on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, during January-February 1999 the General Directorate of Epidemiology in Mexico, the Chihuahua State Department of Health Services (CDH), the Ciudad Juarez Department of Health (CJDH), the Texas Department of Health (TDH), and the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDH) surveyed cigarette outlets in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; El Paso, Texas; and Las Cruces, New Mexico. This report summarizes the results of these surveys, which indicate that almost all retailers in the surveyed outlets in Ciudad Juarez sold cigarettes to minors and that sales rates to minors were substantially lower in El Paso and Las Cruces.