Over half a million middle school students and three million high school students smoke, announced U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin while presenting the office s first report on youth smoking since 1994. Nine in 10 smokers pick up the habit before their 18th birthday, thus prompting Dr. Benjamin to declare youth smoking an epidemic that requires a renewed effort to prevent teens from smoking.
Smoking leads to 1,200 deaths daily, and nearly 99 percent of all first-time tobacco use occurs before the age of 26; these young people become vulnerable to the long-term health effects of smoking, including lung cancer and heart disease, since after starting to smoke, quitting later on is extremely difficult. Part of the problem, the latest report says, is that tobacco companies are specifically advertising cigarettes to youth, with ads appearing in retail stores or online. But as ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross points out, Many laws are in place that specifically ban these manufacturers from marketing to young people. He adds, These companies are already prohibited from placing ads in magazines that cater to a younger demographic, and they re strictly controlled on where they can advertise their products. That being said, however, we do understand that cigarette makers need new recruits to replace older smokers who quit, or die, and there are probably some clever ways to get around these restrictions to seduce young audiences.
Concerns about smoking, unlike the pervasive and baseless fears of many safe and useful chemicals, are grounded in science smoking is a real public health threat, and ACSH has long supported smoking prevention and effective cessation policies, especially among teens. We need to find more effective means to dissuade young people from taking up smoking, says ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. Eighty percent of high school smokers will continue to smoke as adults, she adds, so we need to make teen smoking prevention a serious priority.