The first puff is free

Hooking kids?
Much of the emphasis of the proposed FDA smoking regulations concerns children. And for good reason. Most new smokers are young. The median (defined) age of starters is 16 to 17. And with so many smokers dying or quitting, the industry must "replace" 3,000 former smokers each day just to maintain its customer base.

Tobacco representatives deny that the industry markets to kids, but public-health experts disagree. "The industry is spending $190 per second on promotion," says Ronald Davis, editor of the journal Tobacco Control, "and that has played a role in stoking the fires of smoking among youth."

The Clinton administration has set a goal of reducing youth smoking by 50 percent in seven years. "That's an ambitious goal," Davis adds, and it won't be met unless the effect of cigarette advertising on youths is better controlled and understood.

A recent study (see "Influence of Tobacco Marketing and Exposure..." in the bibliography) found that advertising was quite effective on non-smoking youths in California -- even more effective than pressure of peers or family. Using data on 3,536 youths who responded to the 1993 California Tobacco Survey, the researchers concluded that "adolescents are very aware of cigarette advertising."

The California researchers wanted to study kids at the first stage of the process that leads to smoking, says study co-author John Pierce, professor of cancer research at the University of California at San Diego. Thus, the researchers studied only children who had never puffed on a cigarette.

These youths were asked if they would smoke a cigarette that was offered them by a best friend. If they answered "definitely not," they would be categorized as "not susceptible," Pierce says. Otherwise, they were considered susceptible, a determination based on long-term studies of youth attitudes, which found that youths who answered "probably not" were likely to try smoking within a few years.

This so-called "susceptibility to smoking" was compared to two quantities:

Exposure to smoking -- did their good friends and/or parents smoke?

Receptivity to tobacco advertising, as measured by the number of positive answers to questions about:

Recognizing cigarette advertising messages
Having a favorite cigarette advertisement
Owning tobacco merchandise (bags, clothing, etc. that carried a cigarette brand name)
Willingness to use tobacco merchandise and
Having a specific brand preference for cigarettes

Susceptibility to smoking
After adjusting the data for age, race/ethnicity, and self-perceptions of school performance (which greatly influence smoking behavior), the researchers found that peer influence and receptivity to advertising were both independently related to susceptibility to smoking. In other words:
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the 489 youths with family and friends who smoked were 1.95 times more likely to consider smoking -- to be susceptible -- as youths with neither family nor peers who smoked.
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And the 361 youths who had at least four "yes" answers on the "receptivity" scale were 3.91 times as likely to be susceptible (to begin smoking in the near future) as those who answered "no" to all five questions. In other words, just owning a Marlboro lighter, and recognizing the Joe Camel pitch indicated a doubled likelihood of trying cigarettes.
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Even adolescents who answered only two receptivity questions "yes" were 2.03 times as likely to smoke as subjects who answered all "no."

What about cigarette related "stuff"?

There are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 documents. (Glossary | Bibliography)