Stubbing out teen smoking

IAIN MCGREGOR/The Press

SMOKING: Two out of three teenagers now say they have never even puffed on a cigarette.

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Teen smokers are kicking the habit, a decade-long survey by anti-smoking group Ash shows.

Smokefree policies and campaigns are behind a massive turnaround in overall youth smoking rates since 1999, the survey's lead researcher says.

However, she warned there was no room for complacency, with the drop among poorer teenagers not nearly as great.

The results of Ash's survey, out today, show the number of year 10 pupils (aged 14-15) who are daily or regular smokers has dropped by two-thirds since the survey began in 1999. In 1999, 29 per cent of year 10 pupils smoked regularly and 16 per cent said they smoked every day.

Those figures have dropped steadily each year to 11 and six per cent, while two out of three teenagers now say they have never even puffed on a cigarette.

"The decline in daily smoking prevalence is significant," lead researcher Janine Paynter said.

The biggest drops over the years coincided with major policy changes, such as banning smoking in bars and workplaces and introducing graphic warnings on cigarette packets – showing smokefree campaigns and legislation worked.

More concerning was the rate of smoking in low-decile schools, she said. While the number of girl smokers at low-decile schools had dropped, it was still four times the rate among their more affluent counterparts.

The rate among boys at low-decile schools smoking had barely changed at all since 2005.

There were wider social reasons behind high rates of smoking in poorer communities that could not be fixed through smoking policy alone, Dr Paynter said. However, teenagers were frequent visitors to dairies so banning retail displays was one way to see youth smoking rates drop even further.

Increasing the price of cigarettes would also help to discourage them.

"Cost makes it harder for teenagers – particularly low-decile teenagers – to access tobacco."

Big hikes in tobacco prices earlier this year have already forced thousands of smokers to quit, figures released yesterday showed.

Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia said the number of smokers who registered with Quitline for help to quit smoking had increased by 2500 to 7925 after the May announcement of a 10 per cent rise in tobacco excise. Demand remained higher than usual in June at 5548, compared to the monthly average of 3991.

"We knew that putting up the price would be a powerful tool in reducing smoking," Mrs Turia said.

"It forces people to cut back but, more importantly, it provides a strong incentive for smokers to quit and helps dissuade young people from ever starting to smoke."

Quitline spokesman Carl Billington said about 400 teenagers registered with the service each month – about eight per cent of all callers.

STAUNCHLY SMOKEFREE

Mahinaarangi Torrey is one of a growing majority of teenagers who have never let a cigarette touch their lips.

The 17-year-old Palmerston North girl comes from a family of smokers and said it made her sad and angry to see her aunties, uncles and cousins light up.

"My koro's brother died from smoking. Some of my family, while they were there at his tangi, they were still smoking up and I was like, how can you do this to us when this comes of it?"

Her nana gave up smoking after she got breast cancer and Mahinaarangi said the toll tobacco had taken on her family had convinced her to never start smoking herself.

"You don't really have to try it to be able to see it and smell it."

She felt so strongly about the impact tobacco has had on her family that she made a presentation last month to the Maori Affairs select committee tobacco inquiry.

Mahinaarangi's choice was not unique and she believed the number of teen smokers was falling. "None of my friends smoke and they think it's so uncool."

- © Fairfax NZ News