Youth smoking

Smoking among teenagers is an issue that affects countries worldwide. The U.S. has taken drastic measures in attempt to eliminate use of tobacco products among teenagers. 90% of smokers are estimated to have begun smoking before the age of 18 (the legal age), therefore it is necessary to reduce the number of youths who start smoking before this age in order to reduce the total number of smokers and harm done to society.

When the tobacco industry first began to target this new youth demographic, they did so in an entirely non-discreet method (for example through the use of characters that mimic cartoons). Once they began to experience resistance from the public they changed their approach by using anti-tobacco advertisements to actually raise awareness of tobacco products in youths and to increase their desire to smoke. Studies have been done to understand what factors make an advertisement more effective and more readily internalized by youths. Advertisements that follow these criteria have been shown to actually decrease the likelihood of youth smoking. In order to prevent a continued and growing pattern of youth smoking, it is necessary to recognize what social factors influence teens so that preventative measures can be determined.

While youth smoking may be viewed more or less negatively in different nations, it remains an issue regardless of how societies perceive it. Tobacco industries have tailored their messages to apply overseas and have encountered less restrictive legislation making advertising abroad highly influential to the targeted audience. This has been a concern for many nations.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimates that each day, over 4,000 people under the age of 18 try their first cigarette. This amounts to more than 730,000 new smokers each year. The Final Report of the National Commission on Drug-Free Schools indicate that children and adolescents consume more than one billion cigarettes every year. According to economist Kenneth Warner, Ph.D., the tobacco industry needs 5,000 new young smokers every day in order to maintain the total number of smokers. The US Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 90% of smokers begin their tobacco usage before age 20. Of these, 50% begin tobacco use by age 14 and 25% begin their use by age 12. Children are three times more sensitive to advertising as concluded in the April 1996 Journal of Marketing study. The three most heavily advertised cigarette brands are Marlboro, Newport, and Camel. The 1994 Center for Disease Control (CDC) report concluded that 86% of underage smokers prefer one of these three brands. Since the Surgeon General's Warning was released in 1964, national smoking rates have been declining. In 1965, approximately 45% of Americans smoked. As the public became more educated on the effects of smoking, the amount of smokers dropped and is currently about 20%. While smoking among adults consistently declined over time, smoking rates for high school students began to increase in the early 1990s. They did not begin to decrease until the end of the decade. One study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that, "Seventy-two percent of students reported experimenting with, formerly, or ever smoking cigarettes, and 32% reported smoking in the past 30 days. Students who had participated in interscholastic sports were less likely to be regular and heavy smokers than were others who had not participated. Smoking initiation rates increased rapidly after age 10 and peaked at age 13 to 14. Students who began smoking at age 12 or younger were more likely to be regular and heavy smokers than were students who began smoking at older ages." If the current smoking trends continue, 5.6 million youths alive today will die prematurely. Prevention and control measures that reduce smoking in this age group can improve the nation's short- and long-term health.

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Wikipedia