Facts About Teen Smoking

You want to know more about smoking and teens, right? But you probably don´t want to read a whole book on it - so here´s some factoids for you to digest and pass on to your friends!

Each day, about 4,000 kids in the U.S. try their first cigarette, and another 1,000 kids under 18 become regular, daily smokers. That’s 464,000 new teen smokers in this country each year. (SAMHSA, 2006)
The addiction rate for smoking is higher than the addiction rates for marijuana, alcohol or cocaine, and symptoms of serious nicotine addiction often occur just weeks or even days after youth “experimentation” with smoking first begins. (CDC, MMWR, 1995)
90 percent of all adult smokers began while in their teens or earlier, and nearly two-thirds became regular, daily smokers before they reached the age of 19. (SAMHSA, 2005)
Roughly one-third of all youth smokers will eventually die prematurely from smoking-caused disease. (CDC MMWR, 1996)
Smoking can seriously harm teens while they are still young. Besides the immediate bad breath, irritated eyes and throat, and increased heartbeat and blood pressure, short-term harms from youth smoking include respiratory problems, reduced immune function, increased illness, tooth decay, gum disease and pre-cancerous gene mutations. (Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, 2004)
Smoking during youth is associated with an increased likelihood of using illegal drugs. (Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 2002)
Tobacco marketing more than doubles the odds that teens will become tobacco users. (Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 2006)
Tobacco marketing can encourage teen smokers to smoke more heavily, increasing the odds that they will become heavy smokers by 42 percent. (Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 2006)
81.3 percent of youth smokers, ages 12-17, prefer Marlboro, Camel and Newport – three heavily advertised brands. Nearly half of teen smokers choose Marlboro, the most heavily advertised brand, but only about 40 percent of smokers over age 25 choose Marlboro. (SAMSHA, 2006)
Teens who own a tobacco promotional item and can name a cigarette brand whose advertising attracted their attention are twice as likely to become smokers than teens who do neither. (American Journal of Public Health, 2000)
According to the 2007 N.C. Youth Tobacco Survey (N.C. YTS) (link opens in new window), 19 percent of N.C. high school students and 12.8 percent of N.C. middle school students own an item with a tobacco logo.
A survey released in March 2006 showed that kids were more than twice as likely as adults to recall tobacco advertising. While only 28 percent of adults recalled seeing a tobacco ad in the two weeks prior to the survey, 53 percent of kids aged 12 to 17 reported seeing tobacco ads. (ICR, 2006)
At least two major studies found that teens are more likely to be influenced to smoke by cigarette advertising than they are by peer pressure. (NCI, 1995) (JAMA, 1998)
A study in the Journal of Marketing found that teenagers are three times as sensitive as adults to cigarette advertising. (Journal of Marketing, 1996)
Spit tobacco “starter products”, such as snuff-filled pouches and candy-flavored products, have switched spit tobacco from a product used by older men to one used mostly by young men. (CDC, 1994) More than 14 percent of U.S. high school boys are current smokeless tobacco users (CDC, 2002), and 14.5 percent of N.C. high school boys are users. (2007 N.C. YTS)
According to the 2007 N.C. YTS, 23.1 percent of N.C. high school students and 18.7 percent of N.C. middle school students are “susceptible” to smoking. Youth are considered “susceptible” to smoking if they answered “yes” to at least one of four acknowledged susceptibility questions.

On odd-numbered years between 1999 and 2007, North Carolina has conducted the N.C. Youth Tobacco Survey (NC YTS). Through this survey, we can track teen tobacco use levels as well as student views on teen access to tobacco products, school policies, cessation activities in schools and many other issues. See the most recent N.C. YTS survey results (link opens in new window).