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Walter W. Reed
National Automatic Merchandising Association Chicago, Ill

JAMA. 1989;262(5):614-615.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor. —

In the January 6, 1989, issue of JAMA there is a report entitled "Reducing the Illegal Sale of Cigarettes to Minors,"¹ which is based on a project organized by several individuals in Santa Clara County, California.

The authors advocate the elimination of cigarette vending machines and allege that they play a significant role in smoking by minors. This allegation is based on questionable research methods and faulty conclusions and is totally inconsistent with long-established facts and available information.

We believe that JAMA readers deserve to be informed about the true situation regarding the availability of cigarette machines to minors and the insignificant role they play in purchases by minors.

The authors of the Santa Clara County report indicate that only 8% of cigarettes are sold through vending machines (the actual figure today is 5%). Even for this negligible market share there is convincing proof that . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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