Surgeon General's "shocking" teen smoking report sparks call for action

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(CBS/AP) Far too many teens smoke cigarettes, according to a new report from the U.S. Surgeon General, and more measures like increasing cigarette taxes and creating smoking bands are needed.

PICTURES: Teen smoking: 12 states with highest rates
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Nearly one in five high school-aged teens smokes, a rate that's down from earlier decades but the rate of decline has slowed, the report showed.

"The numbers are really shocking," Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, told USA Today. "It's a problem we have to solve."

According to the report, it's particularly important to stop young people from using tobacco because those who start smoking as teens are more likely to be addicted as adults. They also quickly can develop health problems including reduced lung function and early heart disease.

More than 80 percent of smokers start by age 18 and 99 percent of adult smokers in the U.S. start by age 26, according to the 920-page report, which is the first comprehensive look at youth tobacco use from the surgeon general's office in almost two decades.

"In order to end this epidemic, we need to focus on where we can prevent it and where we can see the most effect, and that's with young people,"  Benjamin told The Associated Press. "We want to make our next generation tobacco-free, and I think we can."

The report details youth tobacco use, health impacts, and tobacco marketing and prevention efforts in the U.S., and officials hope the information will reinvigorate anti-tobacco efforts.

The report also recommended anti-smoking campaigns and increased restrictions under the FDA's authority to regulate tobacco as other ways to prevent adolescents and young adults from using tobacco products.

Benjamin did not point fingers on why youth tobacco use continues in the U.S. "I don't want to focus on blame, I want to focus on prevention," she said. "I want to make sure we're doing everything that we can to prevent kids from ever starting to smoke or use tobacco products."

Others did point the finger.

"Tobacco marketing is a big cause of the problem," Danny McGoldrick of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told USA Today, citing his group's recent report on tobacco industry partnerships with convenience stores to prominently advertise products. He also cited the industry's resistance to increases on state tobacco taxes.

The Surgeon General's report also examined advertising and promotional activities by tobacco companies, which have been shown to "cause the onset and continuation of smoking adolescents and young adults."

Tobacco companies have spent increasing amounts of money on marketing efforts to reduce prices, which health officials said influences access to price-sensitive youth, making smoking more affordable.

Nearly $10 billion was spent in 2008 on cigarette marketing by the nation's five biggest tobacco companies, a 48 percent increase from what was spent in 1998, when some of the companies agreed with state attorneys general to curtail or stop some of their marketing efforts.

The new report is the 31st issued by U.S. surgeons general to warn the public about tobacco's risks. The first report in 1964 declared tobacco to be deadly.

Since the 1994 report, smoking among high school students has declined from 27.5 percent to 19.5 percent, or about 3 million students, but the rate of decline has stalled in recent years. About 5.2 percent, or 600,000 middle school students also are current smokers. According to the report, every day in the U.S., more than 3,800 people under the age of 18 smoke their first cigarette and more than 1,000 of them become daily smokers. They replace the 1,200 people who die each day in the U.S. from smoking.

The CDC says smoking can damage nearly every part of the body, causing stroke, blindness, heart disease, chronic lung problems, reduced fertility, and many types of cancer including lung, stomach, pancreatic, bladder, cervical, and colon cancers.

"We have come a long way since the days of smoking on airplanes and in college classrooms, but we have a long way to go," Secretary of Health and Human Resources Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement accompanying the latest report. "The prosperity and health of our nation depend on it."

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Teen smoking: 12 states with highest rates

[carolast]

The Surgeon General lies about heart disease.

http://www.smokershistory.com/SGHDlies.html

The Surgeon General lies about cancer.

http://www.smokershistory.com/SGlies.html

[geneb5]

aren't ads forbidden by cbs? Carolast spams ads for her screwball websites all over the internet, carol. Google her.

[kaze13]

Its not hard to figure out why more and more kids are smoking and I feel there is little evidence to blame the tobaco companies for. A individual, even an inmature one has the right to make good and bad choices and because our government makes it more profitable to sell (both for the feds and the corporations) that means more advertising in more movies, commericials etc. Why is pot illegal? because its a weed, you stick it in the ground and it grows, you harest it and smoke it, no need for big distileries or tobaco factories, that also means uncle sam wont be drawing taxes from it as well and in states that have leagalised pot have shown reductions in not only tobaco and alchol consumption but has caused a drop of about 5% in the number of DWI and DUI cases.

[isonespal]

Most states are dependent on tobacco settlement monies for the next 13 years or so, and that money is depends on a maintaining a certain level of tobacco sales...so these may be our children but Grover Norquist has made our politician legislators ( never raise a tax for any reason) , and you and I by extension, the tobacco companies' pimps.

[GoinBrown]

NO! NO! NO! When I started smoking cigarettes, I paid $3.33 a carton, now I pay more than 25 times as much! You cannot keep stealing from me! The THIEVES that suggest higher prices will curb the habit continually offer the same excuses for stealing more. The mental midgets that agree end up costing me more money. YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO INFRINGE ON MY FREEDOM! YOU DO NOT GET TO CHOOSE WHETHER OR NOT I SMOKE! THIS HAS GONE BEYOND RIDICULOUS - STRAIGHT TO CRIMINAL!! Wake up people, ITS NOT WORKING!

[b_eck]

You're allowed to smoke. At this point, it is still a freedom you get to enjoy. However, smoking serves no purpose other than as an oral fixation habit and addiction to nicotine; a recreational drug. Not only does it serve no purpose but to make you "feel better", it is also harming everyone who comes in contact with you.

What about my rights to clean, smoke-free air? When someone around me smokes, I have to deal with the consequences just as much as the smoker does. Doesn't that infringe upon my freedoms?

Cigarettes kill people. Simple indisputable fact. The less people that can afford to smoke, the less people that will die. And honestly, I'm all for not dying of lung cancer if I don't have to.

[GoinBrown]

What about your right to smoke-free air?? I'll tell you. You have it! But you don't get the unfettered rights to all air. If you are around someone that smokes, leave or ask them to! YOU LIE!! Cigarrette smoking does not harm EVERYONE I come in contact with!! THAT IS A LIE!! The "simple indisputable" statement you make is a bald face lie at worst, a lie of ommission at worst. Cigarette smoking can and does kill people, but not everyone!! STOP USING YOUR LIES TO CONVINCE PEOPLE I HAVE TO PAY MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!