After a sharp increase in sales of tobacco products to minors, the Northwoods Tobacco Free Coalition is sponsoring two free training sessions for retailers.
Spokesperson Maria Skubal says the amount of tobacco products sold to youth shot up last year...
"....so every year our coalition goes out and conducts compliance checks. In 2014 Oneida county had a pretty high non-compliance illegal sales rate of 18.6 percent...."
She says this set off alarms that perhaps it was time again to do training for store owners and workers. She says both workers and owners can be fined for making tobacco sales to underage buyers. Skubal says there are a wide array of products with nicotine in them and those are also included in the regulations.
Free training sessions are planned for the Minocqua Public Library on May 7 and in Rhinelander on May 14 at the Oneida County Health Department. Other training sessions will be conducted in Forest, Florence, Lincoln, Price, and Vilas counties. Contact local public health departments about their times and locations.
