“This study is a watershed in the fight against teen smoking,” said  TITS scientist Dr. Rusty Meyers.  “It’s likely this data will lead to major revisions in anti-smoking literature.”

The data, which includes surveys from 420 middle schools, high schools, and post secondary schools, flies in the face of conventional wisdom–namely the belief that teen smoking continues into adulthood.

“When we looked at the numbers, we were stunned,” said Myers.  “It turns out that after teen smokers turn 20, their participation in teen smoking goes from 22 percent to 0; it basically stops.”

According to Myers, that means the U.S. Department of Education is wasting 100s of millions of dollars in anti-smoking pamphlets at post secondary institutions across the nation.  “The data says it all–once they’re in their 20s, these kids are no longer teen smokers,” he said.

Myers thinks the study has wider implications as well.

“Extrapolating on that, it seems that teen smoking isn’t habit forming,” he said.  “That means we’re wasting even more money educating kids about an activity that’s essentially limited to seven years of their lives.”

]]> http://stampworthy.com/2009/10/teen-smoking-rate-greatly-diminishes-after-20/feed/ 0