In recent months, teenage volunteers, ages 15 to 17, walked into various stores across the state to try to buy cigarettes, something they can't legally do in Hawai'i until age 18. From the scientifically based random sample of 211 stores, only 11 sold to minors, or 5.2 percent.

The annual survey is a joint effort of the state Department of Health and the University of Hawai'i's Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i. When the survey began in 1996, nearly half of the stores — 44.5 percent — sold cigarettes to minors. The trend has been generally down since then. Clerks convicted of selling tobacco to minors face a $500 fine for a first offense, officials said.

Several Farrington High School juniors volunteered with the sting in March and April.

Fay Callejo, Glendalyn Ancheta and Roxanne Tabudlo, all 16, are part of the school's Health Academy, planning careers in healthcare. All three believe fewer teens are taking up smoking than in the past. Tabudlo said the reasons some people still choose to smoke are the same as they have been for generations: peer pressure, to relieve stress and "they want to act cool."

Callejo, who wants to be a physical therapist, said the undercover work made her nervous at first, but she thinks it's worthwhile. "I was afraid that someone was going to yell at me," she said. "They did yell at me." She said older store clerks yelled the most, not only refusing to sell her cigarettes but scolding her for trying to buy.

Ancheta, who wants to be a nurse, said she remembers thinking when she was younger that smoking looked cool. Now she knows it's bad for your health and expensive, too.

State Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said Hawai'i was among the most successful states last year in discouraging sales to minors, coming in fourth after Delaware, Colorado and Louisiana.

Elaine Wilson of the Health Department's alcohol and drug abuse prevention division praised some 300 volunteers who have worked on the program in the past nine years.

"In many states, youth have to be paid to provide this service," Wilson said, adding that continued enforcement and education efforts have helped slow sales to minors.

The Health Department also works with four county police departments to check for underage tobacco sales. Teens 15 to 17 years old with IDs went to 1,136 stores statewide, of which 15.9 percent sold to minors.

Some store clerks who asked for ID still sold to minors, Wilson said. The department has produced stickers to help clerks see at a glance which birth years are too young to buy tobacco.

Wilson highlighted other factors in underage tobacco sales:

• Gas stations and gas convenience stores were more likely to sell to minors (14 percent) than grocery, food, restaurant and liquor stores (6.6 percent).
• Half of the clerks who did not ask for identification sold tobacco to minors, and clerks who did not ask for identification were 10 times more likely to sell to minors.
• Clerks were more likely to sell to boys (19.1 percent) than to girls (1.8 percent). And they sold to 15-year-olds (15.4 percent) more than 16-year-olds (2.8 percent) or 17-year-olds (9.4 percent).

To see the entire report, go to www.hawaii.gov/health and click on "tobacco report" under "publications."

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.