RENO, Nev.—In the U.S., the incidence of smoking cigarettes among high school students continues to decrease as a result of health awareness, inconvenience, and informative programs.

According to the Information from Youth Risk Behavior Survey (1991-2007), 36.5 percent of U.S. high school students, grades 9 through 12, were current smokers. The total dropped by 15 percent in 2007 resulting in only 20 percent of high school student smokers.

Lisa Sheretz, the lung health program manager for the American Lung Association in Nevada, said tobacco taxes, health warnings, and group support have all played a role in the decreasing rate of high school smokers.

Approximately 4000 high school students quit smoking or die every day. “More smokers have quit than are smoking today in the U.S.,” Sheretz said. “When people know better, they do better.”

(For an audio video with Lisa Sheretz, click on “smokingrates.”)
SmokingRates

Another impacting cause of the decreasing rates is due to the inconvenience factor. As more Americans become aware of the health effects, the more they don’t want to be surrounded by smoke or smokers.

“I dislike smoking. I have and always will be against smoking,” Gabrielle Walker, Sparks High School sophomore, 15, said. “It is a waste of your money.”

The cost of cigarettes has increased throughout the years, causing high school students to be unable to afford their habit. According to the American Lung Association’s Cost of Smoking Calculator, which is averaged on nationwide cigarette prices, a smoker who smokes one pack of cigarettes daily will pay an average cost of $136.20 a month, which adds up to $1,657.10 a year.

Monica Parra, Sparks High School sophomore, 15, said smoking is a waste of time. “It’s a waste of breath, and it’s a waste of money,” she said.

Many programs are offered to high school students to raise awareness of the issue. Teens Against Tobacco Use, also known as T.A.T.U., is a service-learning project focused toward teens throughout America. The program reached 19,000 teens in Nevada alone last year.

“It teaches them not to smoke, and the fact if you never start smoking that you never need to quit,” Steve Williams, the teen coordinator for Reno’s T.A.T.U. program, said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each day in the U.S., about 3900 teens try their first cigarette, and an estimated 1000 of them become daily smokers. The programs offered are meant to target teens so they don’t take on the habit.
Williams said 6600 students start smoking in Nevada alone each year.

“That’s a devastating factor that we really go after to get the teens not to start smoking,” Williams said. “That way they don’t have to quit smoking.”

Sheretz said younger brains are still growing, therefore they become addicted faster. According to the American Lung Association, three percent of U.S. high school smokers will become addicted after their first cigarette.

“Tobacco hits the pleasure center and after seven seconds, the brain tries to tolerate it and grows nicotine preceptors,” Sheretz said. “It’s much easier for teens to get addicted.”

The American Lung Association offers a national voluntary program called Not on Tobacco, N.O.T. for short, which helps teen stop smoking, shows better lifestyle behaviors, and improves their life-management skills.

The American Lung Association and T.A.T.U. are preparing for smoking rates in Nevada to increase among high school students due to the recent budget cuts.

Once taught in physical education, applied biology, as well as health classes throughout Nevada, said Sheretz, tobacco education’s funding will be stripped away at the beginning of the 2010/2011 fiscal year. Sheretz said all funding for tobacco education in Nevada will be stopped at the beginning of the fiscal year.

“It’s very hard to go back and establish education systems once they’re taken away,” she said. “I’m sorry to say, but I do believe smoking rates will go up.”

Williams said T.A.T.U and the American Lung Association will continue to reach out to high school students regardless of the lack of funding. “It’s important these kids know the effects of tobacco,” Williams said.

The helpful hand is already reaching out in the local community. Erica Krysztof, a health teacher at Sparks High School, said the American Lung Association donated props and information to her class. “I wouldn’t be able to afford it if they didn’t help,” she said.

Decrease in High School Students (grades 9-12, male and female) from 1997-2007