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Two NJ Stores may be Banned from Selling Tobacco for 30 Days (Star-Ledger, Jessica Mazzola)

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Two New Jersey businesses may be banned from selling tobacco products for 30 days, the result of repeated alleged incidents of their selling cigarettes to minors, federal officials announced Thursday.  According to the FDA, it can request the 30-day stop orders against businesses that have violated tobacco sale restrictions, including cigarette sales to minors, five or more times in the past 36 months.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it has filed complaints to initiate a “No Sale Tobacco Order” against eight retailers across the country, including two in New Jersey. The complaints mark the first time the FDA has sought NTSOs since their passage as part of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the FDA said in a release.

The complaints were filed against two businesses in Essex County – I and S Grocery in Newark, and C and C Supermarket in Irvington. Neither could be immediately reached for comment.  According to the FDA, the stores have 30 days to respond to the complaints. If the NTSOs are approved by FDA Administrative Law Judges, the administration will conduct unannounced checks to make sure the stores have stopped selling tobacco products, it said.

Read full Star-Ledger story
Read the FDA’s October 29, 2015 press release.