Teenagers immediately start smoking more if anti-smoking campaigns are cut

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 16 Apr 2004 - 0:00 PDT

It seems that teenagers immediately start smoking more if anti-smoking campaigns are cut down. According to a new report, American state cut backs on anti-smoking campaigns are having an immediate effect on teen smoking - it is going up. Minnesota's tobacco prevention budget, aimed at the young, was cut by 80%. Only a few months after the cuts, teenage smoking started to climb significantly. Most adult regular smokers started smoking in their teens. Targeting teenage smoking is seen as a way of preventing lifetime smoking. The Minnesota state anti-tobacco programs are thought by many to have been responsible for the decline in teenage smoking since 1997. In Massachusetts illegal sales of tobacco to underage kids rose significantly after the state slashed its anti-tobacco campaign budget by 92%. You can read about this new research in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (CDC publication, USA). Dr. David Nelson, one of the authors of this new study said "It's a major concern. We're worried about states' cutting back, and that this is a harbinger of what we might see. Cutting back funds is penny-wise and pound-foolish. It may be an early smoking gun. It's hard to find health problem bigger than this, and here we have programs that work."

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