Next Steps

Prevention

Most smokers begin to smoke as teenagers. Every day, 3,000 American youths start smoking.

Despite that fact, the American Lung Association contends that the tobacco industry "aggressively and consistently fights meaningful efforts at the federal, state, and local levels to enact and enforce laws barring sales (of cigarettes) to minors."

Parents still have the biggest impact on their children's decision whether to smoke. The best way to prevent a youngster from taking up smoking likely is to have parents who don't smoke. Children from smoking households are more likely to begin smoking than children from nonsmoking households.

• Much attention has been focused in recent years on the influence of tobacco company advertising on encouraging young people to smoke.

• Although cigarette commercials have been banned from television for 30 years, the tobacco industry remains the country's largest advertiser. According to the American Lung Association, the tobacco industry spent an estimated $5.7 billion on advertising in 1997, up 10.8% or $552 million from 1996. In 1982, when cigarette sales peaked, the industry spent an estimated $1.8 billion for advertising. Cigarette sales dropped from $632.5 billion in 1982 to $478.6 billion in 1997. Tobacco company ads are everywhere:

• Ads are in print media and at sporting and cultural events.

• Cigarette use by actors in popular films has long been a means to portray smoking as sophisticated and glamorous.

• Tobacco companies sponsor automobile racing and women's tennis.

• Although denied by tobacco companies, the use of cartoon animals and the like in advertising campaigns appeals to youngsters.

• Counter-advertising by various antismoking advocacy groups may provide some balance, but their advertising budgets pale beside those of tobacco companies.

• Schools generally provide education on the use of tobacco, alcohol, and other substances, but their impact is unclear.

• Increasing the taxes on cigarettes, and hence their price, has been shown to reduce tobacco consumption, especially among adolescents.