About 73 per cent of tobacco retailers were selling cigarettes to youngsters under 18 in 2008, a study of 1,349 retail outlets and restaurants found. That compares with a non-compliance rate of 81.1 per cent in a similar poll in 2006, the Committee on Youth Smoking Prevention, which did the study, to be published in the international journal Health Policy, said. It urged the government to tighten monitoring.