Ethnic disparities in youth access to tobacco: California statewide results, 1999-2003.

The authors examined the role of youth ethnicity in youth access to tobacco with large, random samples of stores and large samples of ethnically diverse youths for the first time. From 1999 through 2003, White, Black, Latino, and Asian youths made 3,361 cigarette purchase attempts (approximately 700 per year) statewide. Analyses revealed that Black youths had significantly higher access than other youths and that access rates for Black and Asian (but not Latino or White) youths exceeded the Synar-mandated < or = 20%. Clerks who failed to demand youth proof of age identification (ID) sold 95% of the tobacco that youths received and sold significantly more often to minorities and to girls, whereas clerks who demanded youth ID sold equally infrequently to all youths. These findings highlight significant ethnic disparities in youth access to tobacco and imply that those might be eliminated by policies and interventions that increase clerk demands for youth ID.