After years of remaining steady, the rates in teenage smoking increased each year since 1992, with 36.4% of high school students were current tobacco users in 1997.1 There was a drop in 1998, with 34.8% reporting current tobacco use.2
Both sexes are now equally likely to smoke cigarettes in high school.1 In 1999, 28.7% of high school boys and 28.2% of high school girls reported they currently smoke cigarettes.2
Young people are a strategically important market for the tobacco industry. Since most smokers try their first cigarette before the age of 18, young people are the chief source of new consumers for the tobacco industry, which each year must replace the many consumers who quit smoking or die from smoking-related illnesses.
Teenage girls often start to smoke to avoid gaining weight. Social images can convince teens that being slightly overweight is worse than smoking. The tobacco industry cashes in on and often creates these social images.
Smoking is often a self-enhancement mechanism for teens who have lower self-esteem and self-images than have their nonsmoking peers.
Adolescents with lower levels of school achievement are more likely than their peers to use tobacco.
Adolescents have ready access to cigarettes, despite federal regulations governing their sales to minors. According to the FDA, children were able to buy tobacco products 25% of the times they tried, with that rate being much higher in some states.3
1 University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Study, 1998
2 MMWR. 1998;47(SS-3):50
3 Food and Drug Administration, 1999 |
