State Health Dept. urges supermarkets to halt tobacco sales

The state Health Department is joining anti-smoking groups in an advertising campaign aimed at getting supermarkets across New York to halt sales of tobacco products.
  

The agency and consumer health advocacy groups ran separate full-page ads in several upstate newspapers Wednesday. The state's ad urges readers to support efforts to have supermarkets remove tobacco products from their shelves.
  

Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines said in a release that supermarkets need to take a leadership role on the issue.
  

Some New York supermarket chains have already stopped selling cigarettes, including Rochester-based Wegmans Food Markets and DiCicco (dee-CHEE'-koh) Markets in New York City's northern suburbs.

   
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