The county and Adagio Health are teaming up to conduct a federally funded program aimed at making sure stores that sell tobacco products don’t sell them to underage youth.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration provides funding to the Pennsylvania Department of Health to conduct the FDA’s Tobacco Compliance Check Inspections to see if retailers are selling tobacco products to youth under 21 years old.

The health department then contracts with organizations like Adagio Health to conduct the inspections. Using FDA funding, 10,000 inspections are performed each year in the state.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 was amended in 2019 to raise the minimum age for buying tobacco from 18 to 21 nationwide.

The county commissioners approved an agreement between Adagio Health, which administers the program locally, and the sheriff’s office.

“We will get appropriately aged young men and women, who are under the age to legally obtain tobacco products (and) who will be accompanied by a deputy when the attempted purchase takes place,” Sheriff Michael Slupe said. “The law requires each establishment to card an individual to look at their birthday on their identification.”

He said he will make an announcement before the inspections begin sometime next year.

Many retailers place signs on their counters that provide the date by which a person has to be born to legally buy tobacco, but the program is as much about education is it is about enforcing the tobacco law, he said.

“Some of the employees at these establishments are teenagers themselves and trying to do their jobs, so its incumbent on owners to train all employees to follow the guidelines for requiring identification,” Slupe said. “We’re not out to trick anyone. That’s not our intention. It never has been, and it never will be.”

Two or three people under 21 will be involved with the inspections. Slupe said the youth are children of deputies or other county employees who volunteer. They will receive gift cards as compensation.

Accompanied by a deputy, the youth will enter stores and buy a candy bar or soft drink, and ask the clerk for a tobacco product at checkout, Slupe said. They usually visit 200 stores, he added.

Stores that sell tobacco to the youth receive citations, Slupe said.

Adagio Health will pay the county $50 per inspection, or $10,000, to carry out the program through June 30, 2023.

Casey Monroe, vice president of disease control at Adagio’s regional office in Pittsburgh, said Adagio has been conducting the program in Butler County and 10 other counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania for 20 years.

“Through the Pennsylvania Department of Health, we receive grant money to make sure there are no illegal sales of tobacco products to people under the age of 21,” Monroe said.