How Big a Problem Is Tobacco Use Among Youth?

Tobacco use among youth is probably more prevalent than most adults would believe. Ironically, a significant part of the problem is that tobacco use among youth is not a major source of concern to parents, the public, or even some health care providers. This attitude prevails, despite growing evidence that nicotine is an addictive drug with significant short- and long-term consequences for the health of our children and the economy of our Nation.

On the positive side, the climate for tobacco control has never been more favorable. All States currently have tobacco prevention programs, and many communities are beginning to address this problem.

What Do We Know About Kids and Tobacco?

• America's young people begin smoking at a very early age, despite the fact that selling tobacco products to minors is illegal.

  • 1 out of 2 eighth-graders has tried cigarettes.

  • 1 in 5 high school seniors, 1 in 7 tenth-graders, and 1 in 12 eighth-graders currently smoke cigarettes.

• Seventy percent of 12- to 17-year-old smokers report at least one symptom of nicotine dependence or addiction.

• Nicotine dependence in young smokers occurs much earlier in life than previously suspected.

• One-third of youth reporting dependency have tried to quit and failed.

• When smokeless tobacco use is included, figures for tobacco use by males jump significantly:
  • 48 percent of male high school juniors and seniors, 42 to 44 percent of male eighth- to tenth-graders, and 29 percent of male seventh-graders use cigarettes and smokeless tobacco regularly.

Although tobacco use among youth has declined in the last 15 years, the Monitoring the Future study shows a disturbing resurgence in youth cigarette use between 1992 and 1996 (Johnson et al. 1996).

The tobacco industry spends almost $6 billion a year on advertising. It is widely recognized that adolescents are exposed to and affected by tobacco-sponsored advertising.