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CHILDREN AND TOBACCO
The tobacco industry must constantly recruit new smokers to replace the
nearly 420,000 who die each year; their main target is our nation's
children.
THE FACTS
"Nicotine addiction begins when most tobacco users are teenagers, so let's call this what it really is: a pediatric disease."
- David Kessler, M.D.
Conunissioner of the Food and Drug Administration
TOBACCO USE BEGINS EARLY...
According to the 1994 Surgeon General's Report, "Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People":
* Everyday approximately 3,000 young people start smoking -- up to half of them become addicted.
* 90% of all smokers begin before age 18, more than one-third start before
the age of fourteen. 67% of those who use smokeless tobacco begin before age
12.
* Today, at least 3.1 million adolescents smoke.
AND CONTINUES...
Once young people start using tobacco products, it becomes hard to stop; a
1988 Surgeon General's report found that the nicotine in tobacco is as
addictive as heroin or cocaine.
Most young smokers want to quit but are unable to do so. 84% of 12-17
year-olds who smoke one or more packs of cigarettes per day report feeling
dependent on cigarettes.
* 70% of those who smoked during high school are still smoking five years later.
UNTIL IT IS TOO LATE,
* Young smokers are susceptible to significant health problems, including
decreased physical fitness, respiratory illnesses, early development of artery
disease, and reduced lung development which may decrease the normal level of
lung function.
* Rates of tobacco related illnesses are higher for people who begin
smoking when they are young. These illnesses include lung cancer, emphysema,
and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
* Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United
States; it is responsible for 1 out of every 5 deaths each year.
STATE AND FEDERAL POLICIES EXIST...
On the federal level, in 1992 the Congress passed the "Synar
Amendment," a policy designed to discourage tobacco use among young people.
This law encourages states to enact and enforce comprehensive laws to prohibit
the sale and distribution of tobacco products to individuals under 18 years of
age. States that do not comply will be denied full block grant funds for
substance abuse prevention and treatment.
On the state level, all 50 states and the District of
Columbia ban sales of tobacco products to individuals who are, at a minimum,
under the age of 18.
BUT MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE,
Unfortunately, current laws are rarely enforced.
A study in the February 1994 issue of the American Journal of Public
Health found that 91 % of all cigarettes smoked by teenagers are sold to
minors. In 1991, an estimated 255 million packs of cigarettes were sold
illegally to young people.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of young
people who purchase cigarettes, 84.5 % reported they often or sometimes
purchased cigarettes from small stores, 49.5 % made the same claim about
purchase from large stores, and 14.5% sometimes or often obtained cigarettes
from vending machines.
THE SOLUTIONS
The Coalition on Smoking OR Health recommends that each
state enact comprehensive laws restricting youth access to tobacco products. A
group of 27 state Attorneys General and the Coalition prescribe legislative
remedies such as:
These solutions are effective and popular.
A 1994 survey conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found
that the American public strongly supports measures that would prohibit
cigarette vending machines accessible to kids (91 %), ban distribution of
free cigarettes in public (88%), forbid the sale of single cigarettes
(82%) and require tobacco products to be placed behind sales counters
(78%).
Since the 1989 enactment of a comprehensive youth access ordinance in
Woodridge, Illinois, teen smoking rates have dropped to half that of their
cohorts around the country.