The Public Health Committee is meeting today to discuss legislation that would tighten penalties for tobacco vendors who sell products to minors.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Mary Ann Lippert, R-Pittsville, would make compliance checks easier. Tobacco vendors in Wisconsin stand to lose $10 million in federal funding under the legislation if they do not increase their rate of compliance with state underage tobacco-sales laws.

Rep. Frank Urban, R-Brookfield, said the bill would provide training for clerks, allow counties to make ordinances that restrict tobacco sales to minors, and require information on tobacco licensing.

Under current law in Madison, police can give citations to storeowners, but new legislation would hold both the minor who attempts to purchase tobacco and the clerk who authorizes the sale responsible.

“There is a problem with this in Madison because it is very difficult to establish the identity of the person selling,” Urban said. “There are different provisions for [clerks who are] trained or not trained.”

Urban said the legislation makes giving citations a more cumbersome process, but it is difficult to issue citations anyway.

Independent Tobacco Control Advocate Joseph Cismoski said this is “bad legislation” because kids and clerks should not have to bear the fines.

“Tobacco products are the only products on the free market that people cannot use safely,” Cismoski said. “Even though they have the ability to choose if they want to smoke.”

Cismoski said he is not opposed to tobacco sales in general but argues for increased regulations because the currently weak laws harm consumers.

“We should be going after industry and people who produce tobacco and not the people they have seduced into using,” Cismoski said. “The problem isn’t kids smoking, it is the marketing and promotion and sale to kids.”

Tobacco sales to minors in Madison have increased drastically since 1999. Last year, nearly 100 vendors sold to minors last year, and overall vendor compliance with tobacco-sales laws dropped to 69 percent in November and December 2001.

To deal with compliance problems, the Madison Department of Public Health and the Centers for Prevention and Intervention teamed up in January to reestablish the Tobacco Vendor Compliance Check program. The program sends youth into community outlets — including bars, taverns, grocery and convenience stores, drug stores, gas stations and hotels — to check compliance with state laws.

Vendor compliance — excluding taverns and bars — fell to 72 percent, its lowest figure since February 1996.

Vending machines located in taverns, bars and restaurants have a compliance level of 39 percent.

During the checks, 94 of Madison’s 321 licensed tobacco vendors sold products to minors, although nine of the vendors were not used during the check either because they were not open, specialized in adult entertainment or were no longer in business at the time.

The Burden of Tobacco in Wisconsin reported Tuesday the drastic effects tobacco has on the state’s health and economy.

According to the report in 2000, more than 7,300 Wisconsin residents died from smoking-related diseases, amounting to 15 percent of all deaths in the state. The survey estimated 95,000 years of life were lost by people who died from smoking-related diseases.

“Policy makers and academics hear so many numbers that they sometimes become numb to their meaning. Wisconsin cannot afford to ignore the true meaning of these numbers,” said Ernestine Willis, chair of the Tobacco Control Board. “Each number is an unnecessary death, unnecessary disease and unnecessary human suffering,” she said. “We must aggressively fight the death and disease caused by tobacco.”