U.S Teen Smoking at Record Low in 2012: Study

Decline may have been driven by sharp hike in the federal tobacco tax

Chain-smoking in your teens? Not today’s teenagers. Cigarette smoking among American teens dropped to a record low in 2012, researchers said on Wednesday. An annual survey of 45,000 students in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades found the overall proportion of those who smoked in the last 30 days fell a percentage point to 10.6 percent. "A one percentage point decline may not sound like a lot, but it represents about a 9 percent reduction in a single year in the number of teens currently smoking," said lead researcher Lloyd Johnston or the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Researchers are attributing the decline, in part, to a sharp hike in the federal tobacco tax, which was raised by 62 cents a pack in 2009. While anti-tobacco advocates championed the finds, they say 17 percent of high school seniors still graduate as smokers. (Reuters)

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