Teen Smoking Rates Continue to Increase - Brief Article

Camping Magazine, May, 2000

After years of remaining steady, teen smoking rates have increased each year since 1992. The latest National Youth Tobacco Survey, conducted by the American Legacy Foundation with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), finds that about one in eight (12.8 percent) middle school students and one in three (34.8 percent) high school students used tobacco in the last month. Further, more than one in four high school students were current cigarette smokers.

Most people who have tried smoking smoked their first cigarette before the age of eighteen. Studies show that young people who do not start using tobacco by the age of eighteen will most likely never start.

For more information on teen tobacco use or to learn what you can do to prevent teens from smoking, visit the CDC's Tobacco Information and Prevention Source on the World Wide Web at www.cdc.gov/ tobacco/index.htm.