Smoking among teens plummets by a third over five-year span
 August 10, 2004

Smoking among Canadian teenagers has decreased dramatically in the past five years, but experts warn that drop may just mean young people are waiting a bit longer before taking up the habit.

The smoking rate among 15- to 19-year-olds dropped to 18 per cent in 2003 from 28 per cent in 1999, according to a Health Canada survey released yesterday. Teen smoking rates have fallen below that of the general population - which held steady at approximately 21 per cent - for the first time in almost a decade.

While Health Canada trumpeted the decrease, some anti-smoking groups said it could be sugarcoating an alarming trend. Young adults have replaced teenagers as the major target of tobacco advertising, said Francis Thompson, a policy analyst for the Non-Smokers' Rights Association. "Tobacco companies are certainly putting more effort into advertising for older age groups - particularly the university crowd."

According to the 2003 Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey, Canada is home to 5.3 million smokers over the age of 15. At 30 per cent, the rate for young adults aged 20 to 24 is the highest for any group.

"Nineteen may be the new high-water mark," Mr. Thompson said. "Nobody starts to smoke past the age of 25, but addiction can begin [at any time]."

Teen smoking rates have likely decreased thanks to smoking restrictions in public places such as school yards, coffee shops and work environments, he added.

But the social environment and greater freedoms afforded university and college students have made them prime tobacco targets. Many have their own residences and vehicles, which offer them a private environment to embrace the habit.

Tobacco companies have focused their advertising budget on young adults by subtly sponsoring events at bars and clubs - often using human advertisers such as "cigarette girls" to hand out free samples of their product, said Sharon Lawler, co-director of Leave The Pack Behind, an anti-smoking information group for Ontario's university and college students.

"The real story here is the jump from 18 per cent to 30 per cent in [young adults]," she said. "That statistic means we have a lot of work to do."

Ms. Lawler said the implementation of increasingly harsher provincial and municipal smoking laws may affect young adults' future habits. Many cities now ban smoking in bars and clubs - a setting in which many young adults partake in part-time or "social" smoking.

While anti-smoking experts focused on the vulnerability of young adults, Health Canada said the new numbers reflected the success of their four-year Federal Tobacco Strategy. Murray Kaiserman, director of surveillance and evaluation for Health Canada's Tobacco Control Program, said government-funded mass media campaigns and school-based programs have reached their intended audience.

"We're seeing a new generation of Canadian youth who view smoking very differently than their parents did. . . they don't view smoking as a socially acceptable phenomenon," Dr. Kaiserman said.

"We have fewer youth smoking and a greater number of adults quitting and at earlier ages - we're satisfied that our efforts have been working."

But Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst for the Canadian Cancer Society, said the recent federal sponsorship scandal has led to a temporary freeze in federal anti-tobacco advertising. Even before the freeze, the funding has been below expectations, he said. In the coming 2004-05 budget, Mr. Cunningham said, funding for advertising is expected to be at least $10-million below the $50-million promised under the Federal Tobacco Strategy.

Included in the survey's highlights was a clear gender imbalance among teen smokers - 17 per cent of boys regularly smoked, versus 20 per cent of girls. Much of the national decrease for the age group can be attributed to a drop in smoking rates among Quebec boys and Ontario girls. Working teens were also more likely to smoke (33 per cent) than teens in school (15 per cent).

Higher taxes, restrictions on smoking and graphic visual warnings on packages have contributed to a decrease in teen smoking, Mr. Cunningham said.

The banning of cigarette displays in retail stores would eliminate another major way tobacco companies target young people, he said. "Every time they go into a convenience store to buy hockey cards and a chocolate bar, there's a towering wall of cigarettes that face them."