Pukyong National University

The ways teen-smokers get their cigarettes, ‘ttulgab, daelgu, angbari’

Professor team of Her Won-Bin and Oh Young-Sam

In a reality where it is illegal for teenagers to buy cigarettes, it was found that smoking teenagers purchase cigarettes through the processes of ‘ttulgab’, ’daelgu’ and ‘angbari’.

This is the result of a research study by a team led by professor Her Won-Bin and Oh Young-Sam from the department of social welfare at Pukyong National University, in a paper titled ‘how do adolescent smokers evade cigarette sales restrictions: Focusing on how they purchase and acquire cigarettes’.

This paper, published in the latest issue of <Health and society review>, an academic journal published by the Korea institute for health and social affairs, volume 42, no. 3, research to review empirically examines the ways smoking adolescents obtain cigarettes, and examines the relationship between the method and situational factors.

The research team at Pukyong National University conducted a case study using a single overall design method after in-depth interviews with 10 teen-smokers aged 14 to 18.

As a result of their study, it was found that most teen-smokers get cigarettes by paying other people a certain fee and purchasing them on their behalf. It is an informal term commonly used by teen-smokers, the person who buys cigarettes instead of teenagers is called ‘angbari’, the brokerage fee with the store is called ‘ddulgap’, and the proxy purchase is called ‘daelgu’.

In addition, high school students were able to purchase cigarettes more easily than middle school students when they went to a so-called ‘store breached in the cigarette trade to teenagers’ to purchase cigarettes or use a fake ID, and they also traded cigarettes through second-hand websites.

When purchasing cigarettes by proxy purchase through adults or schoolmates in school, 'ddulgap' was usually 10% of the price of cigarettes, and middle school students paid relatively higher than high school students. Some girls said they had illegally dated adults to get cigarettes easily.

Based on this, the research team proposed the mandatory installation of ID identification machines, the maximum limit system for cigarettes, and the ban on the sale, distribution, and advertisement of cigarettes online as practical alternatives to suppress the purchase and acquisition of cigarettes by adolescents.

The research team said, “We expect that this study will contribute to the preparation of policies to constrain teen-smokers from purchasing cigarettes and will help to promote youth health by preventing and suppressing smoking among teenagers.”

Meanwhile, the results of this study were reported in the <Kyunghyang shinmun> on the 14th last month and received media attention.