PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

15 percent of cigarettes sold in NYC have illegal tax stamps, study finds

2015-08-28
(Press-News.org) Licensed tobacco retailers throughout New York City are selling a substantial number of cigarette packs carrying either counterfeit or out-of-state tax stamps, finds an investigation by NYU public health researchers. These illegal cigarette sales are more pervasive in independent stores, as opposed to chain stores, according to the study published in the BMJ journal Tobacco Control. "Our research found that illegal cigarettes are regularly available over the counter in New York City," said study author Diana Silver, associate professor of public health at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and College of Global Public Health. "Taxes on packs sold with counterfeit or out-of-state tax stamps are not being recouped by the city and the state." New York City has adopted several laws over the years aimed at reducing smoking. The city currently has the highest cigarette prices in the country, thanks to state and city taxes and minimum price laws. At the end of 2013, New York City established its minimum price for cigarettes at $10.50 - $1.67 higher than the rest of New York State - and added new provisions for enforcing cigarette laws. In New York City, stamping agents pay cigarette taxes to the government in advance; they purchase and affix tax stamps to packs for wholesalers, who in turn sell the stamped packs to the more than 9,700 licensed retailers. "Consumers may be unaware they are purchasing illegal cigarettes, since, at least in our study, clerks sold our investigators these cigarettes at full price," noted Silver. Prior studies have collected littered cigarette packs and examined their stamps to try and understand the extent to which cigarette taxes are dodged, but evidence about tax evasion, especially in over-the-counter cigarette sales, is still scarce. Silver and her colleagues studied the sales of illegal cigarette packs at licensed New York City retailers in the spring and fall of 2014, after the minimum price law was established. Investigators purchased 830 packs of cigarettes from chain and independent cigarette retailers in 92 retail-dense neighborhoods throughout all five boroughs. To determine the legality of the tax stamps, the New York City Sheriff's office used a laser detection device to inspect the packs and find counterfeit and out-of-state stamps. The researchers found that 15 percent, or 125 of the 830 packs, had either counterfeit or out-of-state stamps. More than 10 percent of all stamps were counterfeit, while 4.5 percent carried stamps from Virginia. Virginia does not have a minimum legal price for cigarettes and imposes a cigarette excise tax of 30 cents per pack - the second-lowest in the country. "While cigarettes that have been smuggled into New York City from other places may also be sold directly to consumers, our study demonstrates that retailers are selling these cigarettes throughout the city," said Silver. A significantly higher percentage of illegal packs were purchased from independent retailers, compared with chain stores. In addition, the number of illegal packs - which were found in all five boroughs - grew over the period studied, increasing from the spring to the fall of 2014. The vast majority of cigarette packs were sold at prices in compliance with the minimum price law, suggesting that the lower prices paid by the retailers were not passed on to customers. "Our findings underscore the need for intensive monitoring, oversight, and support to help retailers comply with existing and new cigarette laws. The use of digital tax stamps, coordination of taxes across areas, and systematic monitoring of enforcement efforts could help to address the issues we uncovered," said Silver.

INFORMATION:

In addition to Silver, study authors include Margaret Giorgio, Jin Bae, Geronimo Jimenez, and James Macinko. The Institute for Human Development and Social Change at NYU funded the study. About the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development (@nyusteinhardt) Located in the heart of Greenwich Village, NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development prepares students for careers in the arts, education, health, media, and psychology. Since its founding in 1890, the Steinhardt School's mission has been to expand human capacity through public service, global collaboration, research, scholarship, and practice. To learn more about NYU Steinhardt, visit steinhardt.nyu.edu.

About the NYU College of Global Public Health At the College of Global Public Health (CGPH) at NYU, we are preparing the next generation of public health pioneers with the critical thinking skills, acumen and entrepreneurial approaches necessary to reinvent the public health paradigm. Devoted to employing a nontraditional, inter-disciplinary model, CGPH aims to improve health worldwide through a unique blend of global public health studies, research and practice. CGPH is located in the heart of New York City and extends to NYU's global network on six continents. Innovation is at the core of our ambitious approach, thinking and teaching. To learn more about CGPH, visit http://publichealth.nyu.edu/.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Study links air pollution to children's low GPAs

2015-08-27
EL PASO, Texas - A University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) study on children's health has found that fourth and fifth graders who are exposed to toxic air pollutants at home are more likely to have lower GPAs. UTEP researchers analyzed academic performance and sociodemographic data for 1,895 fourth and fifth grade children living in El Paso, Texas that were attending the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD). They used the Environmental Protection Agency's National Air Toxics Assessment to estimate children's exposure to toxic air pollutants, such as diesel exhaust, ...

Researcher develops cheaper, better LED technology

2015-08-27
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. --A Florida State University engineering professor has developed a new highly efficient and low cost light emitting diode that could help spur more widespread adoption of the technology. "It can potentially revolutionize lighting technology," said Assistant Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Zhibin Yu. "In general, the cost of LED lighting has been a big concern thus far. Energy savings have not balanced out high costs. This could change that." Yu developed this new LED technology using a combination of organic and inorganic materials. ...

Caltech chemists solve major piece of cellular mystery

Caltech chemists solve major piece of cellular mystery
2015-08-27
Not just anything is allowed to enter the nucleus, the heart of eukaryotic cells where, among other things, genetic information is stored. A double membrane, called the nuclear envelope, serves as a wall, protecting the contents of the nucleus. Any molecules trying to enter or exit the nucleus must do so via a cellular gatekeeper known as the nuclear pore complex (NPC), or pore, that exists within the envelope. How can the NPC be such an effective gatekeeper--preventing much from entering the nucleus while helping to shuttle certain molecules across the nuclear envelope? ...

NASA's GPM satellite analyzes Tropical Storm Erika's rainfall

NASAs GPM satellite analyzes Tropical Storm Erikas rainfall
2015-08-27
The Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM core satellite has provided meteorologists with a look at the towering thunderstorms and heavy rainfall occurring in Tropical Storm Erika as it moves through the Caribbean Sea. On August 27, 2015, there were many warnings and watches in effect as Tropical Storm Erika continued to rain on Leeward Islands. A Tropical Storm Warning was in effect for Anguilla, Saba and St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, St. Martin, St. Barthelemy, Montserrat, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, U.S. Virgin Islands, ...

OU astrophysicist and collaborators find supermassive black holes in quasar nearest Earth

OU astrophysicist and collaborators find supermassive black holes in quasar nearest Earth
2015-08-27
A University of Oklahoma astrophysicist and his Chinese collaborator have found two supermassive black holes in Markarian 231, the nearest quasar to Earth, using observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The discovery of two supermassive black holes--one larger one and a second, smaller one--are evidence of a binary black hole and suggests that supermassive black holes assemble their masses through violent mergers. Xinyu Dai, professor in the Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, OU College of Arts and Sciences, collaborated on this project ...

Brazil's national oral health policy -- an example for other nations

2015-08-27
Alexandria, Va., USA - Today, the International and American Associations for Dental Research (IADR/AADR) published a Discovery! article titled "10 Years of a National Oral Health Policy in Brazil: Innovation, Boldness and Numerous Challenges." In it, authors Gilberto Alfredo Pucca, Jr., University of Brasília; and Mariana Gabriel, Maria Ercilia de Araujo and Fernanda Campos Sousa de Almeida, University of São Paulo, discuss Brazil's National Policy of Oral Health, also known as "Smiling Brazil." Brazil is the only country with more than 200 million inhabitants ...

Queen's researcher playing an important role improving psychology research

2015-08-27
KINGSTON - Queen's University developmental psychology professor Stanka Fitneva has co-authored a study in the journal Science that, for the first time, explores the replicability of psychology research. The Reproducibility Project: Psychology, launched nearly four years ago, is one of the first crowdsourced research studies in the field. The researchers' most important finding was that, regardless of the analytic method or criteria used, fewer than half of their studies produced the same findings as the original study. "This is a unique project in psychology, and ...

Imaging techniques set new standard for super-resolution in live cells

Imaging techniques set new standard for super-resolution in live cells
2015-08-27
Scientists can now watch dynamic biological processes with unprecedented clarity in living cells using new imaging techniques developed by researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus. The new methods dramatically improve on the spatial resolution provided by structured illumination microscopy, one of the best imaging methods for seeing inside living cells. The vibrant videos produced with the new technology show the movement and interactions of proteins as cells remodel their structural supports or reorganize their membranes to take up ...

Massive study reports challenges in reproducing published psychology findings

2015-08-27
A study that sought to replicate 100 findings published in three prominent psychology journals has found that, across multiple criteria, independent researchers could replicate less than half of the original findings. In some cases this may call into question the validity of some scientific findings, but it may also point to the difficulty of conducting effective replications and achieving reproducible results. The results of this review study, conducted by more than 270 researchers on five continents, are published in the Aug. 28 issue of the journal Science. Twenty-two ...

Study aims to reproduce 100 published journal papers

2015-08-27
This news release is available in Japanese. Following one of the largest-scale scientific reproducibility investigations to date, a group of psychology researchers has reported results from an effort to replicate 100 recently published psychology studies; though they were able to successfully repeat the original experiments in most all cases, they were able to reproduce the original results in less than half, they report. The authors - part of the Reproducibility Project: Psychology, and led by Brian Nosek - emphasize that a failure to reproduce does not necessarily ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

Targeting FGFR2 may prevent or delay some KRAS-mutated pancreatic cancers

[Press-News.org] 15 percent of cigarettes sold in NYC have illegal tax stamps, study finds