Local health officials say a visual age indicator strip on driver’s licences would help reduce a growing problem of tobacco and alcohol products getting into underage hands.
The call is being led by the Not to Kids Coalition, who are asking the Ministry of Transportation to add the coloured strips to anyone issued a licence under the age of 19, to bring Ontario in line with eight of the other 10 provinces in Canada.
The strips would clearly indicate when the bearer turns the age of majority, making it easier and faster for clerks at stores, bars and casinos to determine a person’s age.
“Another way to do it is to change the way the driver’s licence is formatted. Currently we have a horizon presentation on the driver’s licence. If this is changed to vertical it would make it much easier to recognize the fact a person is under 19,” said tobacco enforcement officer Klaus Larsen of the Thunder Bay District Health Unit.
Quebec and Ontario are the only two provinces that don’t have the indicators, which have also proven effective south of the border, where every state has adopted a form of the licence, Larsen added.
“The common mistake being made is not properly calculating the age of the individual,” Larsen said on Tuesday.
“This would certainly go a long way in helping to prevent the accidental sale of a restricted product.”
It’s a problem that is well-documented in Northwestern Ontario, Larsen added, noting about 20 per cent of retailers have sold tobacco or alcohol to underage consumers.
According to Not for Kids Coalition, most of the mistakes made by clerks are inadvertent. Two years worth of data from the KFL&A public health enforcement checks indicate 91 per cent of clerks who sold tobacco to underage shoppers misread or miscalculated the birth date.
“In order to reduce the number of incidents where tobacco and alcohol sales are being made as a result of miscalculated or misread birth dates it is recommended that Ontario driver’s licence and photo cards be amended to include a visual age indicator,” the coalition states in a release.
The organization said the Ministry of Transportation is not the only government department that would benefit from such a move.
The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care could benefit with a drop in youth smoking rates, while the Ministry of the Attorney General could see youth alcohol-related driving offences fall.
According to the Not to Kids Coalition, the Ministry of Transportation is currently looking at the proposal, which was presented by Kingston. Frontenac, Lexington and Addington Public Health.
"It's an interesting request and MTO staff are now reviewing it," said ministry spokesman Bob Nichols.
