Data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey indicates the decline in teen smoking is leveling off. The biennial report showed that between 2000 and 2009, cigarette smoking rates declined from 28 percent to 17.2 percent among high school students, and from 11 percent to 5.2 percent among middle school students.
However, the researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that the declines between 2006 and 2009 were not statistically significant; from 19.8 percent to 17.2 percent among high school students and from 6.3 percent to 5.2 percent among middle school students.
The researchers said tobacco use remains the single leading preventable cause of death and disease in the United States and that more than 80 percent of adult smokers begin smoking before age 18.
“To further decrease tobacco use and susceptibility to use among youths, restrictions on advertising, promotion, and availability of tobacco products to youths should be combined with full implementation of evidence-based, communitywide, comprehensive tobacco control policies,” the authors write.
