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Australia: Teen anti-smoking push succeeds

Australian teenagers are finally getting the message that smoking is expensive and unattractive.

Two major surveys of teenagers in Western Australia reveal a dramatic re-think in attitudes towards smoking between 1999 and 2005.

Results showed a substantial increase over time in the number of teenagers who thought smoking was costly, unattractive and affected fitness levels.

Dr Michael Rosenberg, a population health expert at the University of Western Australia, said the results showed the short-term effects of smoking were now a powerful deterrent.

Dr Rosenberg said, "The good news is that there is evidence that the view of smoking has changed in youth culture."
"It's important to keep continually reinforcing those messages on the short-term effects, because they obviously work."
The study, published in the Health Promotion Journal of Australia, found that the number of teenagers who are put off by smoker's breath increased from 61 per cent in 1999 to 90 per cent in 2005.

The number who thought smoking made you less fit increased from 86 to 94 per cent, and there was a similar increase in those who thought smoking wastes money.

On the downside, there was no significant change to attitude to other statements like 'quitting is difficult' and 'smoking can ruin your life'.

Of the 650 teenagers questioned in 2005, five per cent had tried smoking by the age of 15.

By the age of 17, ten per cent had smoked in the past week.

Females were almost twice as likely as males to say it was easy to refuse a cigarette, Dr Rosenberg said.

The researchers said the short-term effects of smoking should be the centrepiece of anti-smoking campaigns targeting teenagers, and used alongside other measures like reducing point of sale advertising and increasing smokefree public places.

Source: The Age, 31st July 2008
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