Tobacco-Free sign by Dodge Field, Photograph by Lisa Jordan, Flickr

Introduction

The advocacy and care dedicated to alcohol and tobacco compliance in Madison, as in any town, is important for the health of everyone. The Madison Board of Health meets every other month to discuss health matters in the community. One of those matters that is currently taking place, is a push for more anti-smoking and vaping education. Previous meeting agendas can be found here.

Data

Monitoring and knowledge of where tobacco and alcohol retailers are can further increase the overall safety of Madison. The map displayed here presents the most recent data which shows all places in Madison that have liquor licenses as well as tobacco compliance report records. Tobacco compliance records are from the FDA which monitors  legal compliance of tobacco retailers.

Figure 1: This map displays the alcohol and tobacco retailers of Madison, NJ. Alcohol retailers are displayed from places that have liquor licenses and tobacco retailers are displayed from FDA compliance records. 

Results

In Madison, there are 13 retailers who currently hold liquor licenses. The names of these retailers can be seen in Fig. 1. Many alcohol retailers are located near or on Main street in the center of town. One contributing factor is the increased amount of restaurants in this part of town. Most retailers for alcohol and tobacco were completely compliant with the regulations. The Shell on Main Street was the only place to receive a fine due to multiple violations. The Smoke Shop on Main Street and Madison wIne cellar received warning letters for a single compliance violation.

Conclusion

Understanding the location of alcohol and tobacco retailers can help us protect the health of residents in Madison. It can be particularly useful for helping youths stay away from these until they are of age. Generally, teens are more likely to participate in underage drinking than use tobacco, which can lead to a host of issues. Mapping these retailers allows people to find potential causes for why issues exist in the community, especially for teenagers and underage drinking or tobacco use.

About the Data

The Madison liquor licenses layer was created from a 2018 report sheet from Madison’s town website. The  report sheet listed all places which had liquor licenses. This data was then transferred to ArcGIS in order to show where the location were. Tobacco compliance records were displayed from FDA compliance records after searching for Madison compliance records. The data was also listed showing the names of the retailers and compliance results. There was one link for the Shell that was fined, which was a report for what compliance laws they did not follow. That report can be found here. The compliance data was then downloaded and transferred to ArcGIS.