Healthy stores? Where?

In Imperial Valley, it is easier to purchase cigarettes and alcoholic beverages than healthy foods like fruits, vegetables and low-fat milk.

Such is the conclusion of the “Healthy Stores for a Healthy Community” survey results released a couple of weeks ago by the California Department of Public Health. The poll includes about 7,100 businesses statewide, including pharmacies, markets, convenience stores, liquor stores and smoke shops. Of those businesses consulted, 143 were located in Imperial County.

A similar study was made in 2013. Back then, the results showed a high level of tobacco and alcohol availability levels in poor neighborhoods and areas close to schools. The survey was supposed to raise awareness among the private sector, public agencies and activists. However, instead of turning things around in order to have healthier communities, last year’s results show the opposite.

According to the 2016 survey, 14.7 percent of county residents smoke and their addiction costs $35.4 million. Also, 40 percent of teenagers in eleventh grade have consumed alcohol by age 15 and 15.4 percent are a consumer of tobacco products. Every store in the county has 131 adult smokers and every pharmacy that sells tobacco products has 357 teenage clients on average. Actually, half of those points of tobacco sale are located in underprivileged neighborhoods and almost a third can be found in school areas.

Four years ago, 13 percent of these businesses advertised healthy products in their facilities, a percentage that morethan doubled last year. During 2013, these healthy product ads could be seen in 9.6 percent of low-income neighborhood stores, a percentage that almost quadrupled in three years by climbing to 36.5 percent last year. But the ads of non-healthy products in poor area stores jumped from 86.5 percent in 2013 to 88.9 percent in 2016.

Another good point was the decrease in the offering of tobacco products in most categories — chewable, individual and packaged cigars, as well as flavored smoking. Sadly, the availability of electronic cigarettes observed an augmentation from 53 to 62 percent, which means the market is moving away from traditional tobacco products, given the pressure against companies and the finding of this new business opportunity.

Although the availability of products like sugared beverages and alcohol decreased, the advertising in stores of these same products, increased in the last three years, especially at the eye-level for children.

In all the positive areas of the survey Imperial County showed a lower level compared to the results obtained in California and, at the same time, in almost all negative areas we were behind the state average.

There is no doubt some improvements have been observed during the past three years, but there is still much work to do in order to have better results by the 2019 survey, especially from us, customers, but also from companies and their appetite for profit.