Fewer teens lighting up across U.S. :: Namibia Internet Gateway cc ::

Articles: Fewer teens lighting up across U.S.

Posted by admin on Friday, June 18, 2004 - 03:42 AM

Sanmeshia Johnson, 16, and Kara Schultz, 18, sat on traffic barricades Thursday afternoon outside the Volusia Mall, surrounded by a cloud of smoke from their friends' cigarettes.
But both said they don't smoke: "Because it's nasty." "It's bad for your body, your heart and your soul," said Johnson, 16, a sophomore at DeLand High. The two are part of a large percentage of teens across the nation who have decided not to smoke. Fewer high school students than ever are smoking cigarettes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said Thursday. Smoking among high school students has dropped to its lowest level in more than a decade. But despite the recent figures, some high school students here said they couldn't give up smoking. Rachel Rose, 18, a recent DeLand High School graduate, began smoking at 15. She has tried to quit, she said, but both she and her boyfriend continue to smoke. "It's a really bad habit," Rose said. Nearly 22 percent of U.S. high school students said they were smokers in 2003, down from more than 36 percent in 1997. The lowest previous smoking rate was in 1991, when 27.5 percent of students smoked. In 2002, 21.3 percent of Volusia County high school students used some form of tobacco compared to 35.3 percent in 1998, according to the Florida Department of Health's Florida Youth Tobacco Survey. In contrast, cigarette use among high school students in Flagler County rose between 2000 and 2002 -- from 16.7 to 24 percent, according to the 2002 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey. Despite losing a large portion of its funding, the Volusia County chapter of Students Working Against Tobacco has conducted health fairs, leadership training workshops and used street marketing tactics to convince teens to stop smoking. "We've had a lot of teens that joined SWAT and quit smoking," said Everette Baker, 17, a Spruce Creek High senior. Baker estimated SWAT's local efforts have reached at least half a million teens. The Volusia County Health Department has continued to support SWAT with the help of the program Healthy People 2010, said Gloria Luther, chronic disease/health promotion coordinator and former tobacco prevention coordinator. "They plan activities and I find ways to help them out," she said. The CDC study found that anti-tobacco efforts, such as the ones conducted by SWAT, have been successful across the board, from curbing potential first-time smokers to reducing the ranks of the heaviest of smokers. School-based and media campaigns against smoking also helped toward the decline, CDC officials said. "We are reaching all the youth. If we can stop youth from becoming addicted smokers, eventually we can stop this epidemic," said Terry Pechanek, associate director of science for the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. "We're starting to turn the corner on that -- we're making the progress we've been working toward for the last 40 years," Pechanek said. For the first time in more than two decades, the percentage of high school smokers is lower than the percentage of adults who smoke (22.8 percent in 2003). Traditionally, the rate has always been higher for youngsters because more adults try to quit smoking as they age, Pechanek said.

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