Skip Navigation Links
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
 CDC Home Search Health Topics A-Z
National Center For Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Tobacco Information and Prevention Source (TIPS)
TIPS Home | What's New | Mission | Fact Sheets | Site Map | Contact Us
Contents
About Us
Publications Catalog
Surgeon General's Reports
Research, Data, and Reports
How To Quit
Educational Materials
New Citations
Tobacco Control Program Guidelines & Data
Celebrities Against Smoking
Sports Initiatives
Campaigns & Events
Smoking and Health Database
Related Links

 


Trends in Smoking Initiation
Among Adolescents and Young Adults


The July 21, 1995, issue of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) contains the article, "Trends in Smoking Initiation Among Adolescents and Young Adults-United States, 1980-1989." The study found that adolescent smoking initiation rates decreased slightly from 1980 through 1984, and then increased through 1989. Cigarette marketing practices appeared to be the factor most likely to account for this increase in teen smoking initiation rates.

The study also found the following:

  • This lack of progress in decreasing smoking among youth resulted in more than 600,000 additional teenagers starting to smoke.
     
  • During the 1980s, cigarette promotional expenditures (in 1993 dollars) more than quadrupled, from $771 million in 1980 to $3.2 billion in 1989. The largest increase in adolescent smoking initiation was in 1988, the year that the Joe Camel cartoon character was introduced nationally.
     
  • The most recent national survey data show that adolescent smoking rates continue to rise. To reverse this trend, intensified youth prevention efforts are needed, such as restricting the features of cigarette advertising and promotion that appeal to youths, conducting mass media campaigns, strictly enforcing laws that prohibit tobacco sales to minors, and increasing cigarette excise taxes.
     

Trends in Smoking Initiation Among Adolescents and Young Adults — United States, 1980-1989  44(28);521-525, July 21, 1995
 


Privacy Policy | Accessibility

TIPS Home | What's New | About Us | Site Map | Contact Us

CDC Home | Search | Health Topics A-Z

This page last reviewed February 05, 2002

United States Department of Health and Human Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Office on Smoking and Health