MONROE — The majority of area retailers aren’t selling tobacco to minors during unannounced compliance checks.

But local teens participating in the checks still do manage to buy tobacco products in Green and Lafayette counties, and at a rate significantly higher than the state average, according to the Wisconsin State Tobacco Control Program, which collects data on how frequently tobacco retailers sell to minors.

In 2018, of the 28 compliance checks completed in Green County, three retailers sold to teens, or 10.7%. The Green County average for the past five years is just under 15%.

In Lafayette County last year, one in three retailers sold to minors during compliance checks, but this is unusually high. The Lafayette County average for the past five years is about 18%.

Statewide, the average retailer violation rate is much lower. It was 5.8% in 2017.

“Our main objective is that no one sells,” said Debbie Fischer, director of the Southwest Alliance for Tobacco Prevention, a regional coalition that coordinates compliance checks across five counties in southwestern Wisconsin.

She said she isn’t sure why Green and Lafayette counties have had a higher retailer violation rate. The data has “always been a rollercoaster.”

But compared to almost 20 years ago, violations are way down everywhere. In 2002, when the state started collecting data, the statewide retailer violation rate was 34%. This trend mirrors federally collected data, which shows violations in Wisconsin went from about 47% in 1997 to 7% last year.

One of the biggest challenges in recent years, Fischer said, is the “huge increase” in use of e-cigarettes and vaping products, which often come in sweet or dessert flavors but still contain lots of addictive nicotine.

“Our vaping numbers are larger than our smoking rates. It’s something that just keeps increasing,” she said, citing a 150% increase in teen vaping from 2016 to 2018. Vaping companies use slick marketing to target teens on social media, and minors can easily buy vaping products online, Fischer said.

The popularity of e-cigarettes is erasing past progress in reducing youth tobacco use, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2018, about 4.9 million middle and high school students reported using some type of tobacco product, up from 3.6 million in 2017.

Across all tobacco products, brightly colored packaging at eye level and flavors like “bubble gum” and “root beer float” are attractive to teens, said Carrie Bluel, who worked with the Southwest Alliance for Tobacco Prevention to lead teen compliance checks in Lafayette County last year.

When teens do manage to buy tobacco products during compliance checks, it’s usually because a clerk fails to ask for ID or is aware the teen is younger than 18 but lets the sale go through anyway.

“They definitely need to be a little stricter,” Bluel said.

Jaime Batz, a public health nurse at the Green County Health Department, has been overseeing compliance checks in Green County for over a decade and describes them as a partnership of law enforcement, public health officials, youth and retailers.

“It’s not just strictly a program where we’re looking to go out and bust people,” she said. Retailers that don’t sell to minors during checks are sent a letter of appreciation. “We really want to give them a kudos for doing the right thing.”

Retailers that fail the compliance checks typically get a warning from law enforcement, along with information on a free online training tool aimed at educating retail employers and employees on state tobacco sale laws. Employees can also download the FDA Age Calculator, a free smartphone app for scanning IDs to quickly determine if a customer is younger than 18.

Of the three retailers that sold to minors during checks in Green County in 2018, two were in New Glarus and one was in Monticello, Batz said. A citation would typically involve a fine of up to $500, but no citations were issued in 2018.

The end goal is to prevent access to tobacco, Batz said. The compliance checks get a “really good picture of the county ... We go into every single jurisdiction in every single community — Juda, Albany, New Glarus, Monticello.”

Compliance checks within Monroe are overseen by Luann Radke, court liaison officer with the Monroe Police Department. She’s been doing them for about 15 years and works mostly with 16- and 17-year-olds from Monroe High School, usually “National Honor Society kids that need some community service,” she said.

She waits outside while the teens go into establishments to try to buy tobacco and to record observations like whether mandated signs about youth tobacco sales are posted. To protect their privacy, the teens aren’t allowed to take in their IDs.

They also have to be truthful about their age, if asked.

“It doesn’t take us very long. I’ve gotten it down to a science. Kids are busy,” she said. “We can usually get it done in an hour and a half.”

She gives the teens guidance on what to try to buy. Especially if it’s their first time, and they’re nervous.

“They don’t know what to ask for,” Radke said. “I say, well, you could ask for a pack of Marlboro Lights. You could ask for two.”

She said the teens enjoy doing the compliance checks: “A lot of times, if we get someone who’s 16, they’ll come the next year and do it.”

Radke completed eight compliance checks with two students back in April, with one resulting in a tobacco sale.

For the retailer that sold, “we warned this time,” she said. “Because so many times, your clerks are not the same, they come and go. Usually the business will take care of what needs to be done, whether they give the employee more training or education, or in some cases, somebody may have lost their job.”

“If it would happen again, then we would more than likely take action.”

Overall, tobacco sales to minors are infrequent in Monroe, Radke said.

“Out of 15 years, I think we’ve purchased three packs, maybe four. ... It’s a very, very low percentage of those that sell.”

Many Monroe retailers are vigilant about following the law to not sell cigarettes to anyone under 18, some even vehemently so.

“One time we had a compliance check at a tavern, and the two that were doing the check (were) chased out by the bartender,” she said.