Thirty-two percent of retailers targeted in an undercover survey sold cigarettes to buyers wearing school uniforms last year, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday.
Out of 663 convenience stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets and betel nut stalls surveyed by the Consumers’ Foundation between April and October last year, nearly one-third sold cigarettes to secret shoppers dressed in school uniforms without checking their IDs, the HPA said.
Betel nut vendors were the least likely to check a buyer’s ID, with secret shoppers purchasing cigarettes from 42.4 percent of stalls, it said.
Photo: CNA
Undercover buyers were able to purchase cigarettes from 40.3 percent of grocery stores, 26.6 percent of supermarkets or hypermarkets, and 18.8 percent of convenience stores.
Among convenience stores, 30 percent of Hi-Life stores, 27.2 percent of OK Marts, 16.7 percent of 7-11 stores and 16 percent of FamilyMarts sold cigarettes to undercover buyers.
In terms of supermarkets and hypermarkets, local agricultural and fishers’ associations were the least likely to check IDs, with 35.7 percent of selling cigarettes to undercover buyers, ahead of Pxmart (32.4 percent) and Carrefour outlets (25 percent).
The HPA commissioned the survey ahead of the introduction of amendments to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防治法), which raise the legal age for buying cigarettes from 18 to 20.
Under the new rules, which took effect on March 22, retailers caught selling tobacco products to people under 20 face fines of NT$10,000 to NT$250,000 (US$325 to US$8,126).
Local authorities conducted 250,000 age checks last year, with 119 retailers found selling cigarettes to under-18s, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.09 million, the HPA said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard