Youth and Tobacco: Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People. A Report of theSurgeon General

摘要

Smoking kills an estimated 434,000 Americans each year, most of whom begansmoking during their adolescence. The key to reducing this enormous death toll and the health consequences that accompany tobacco use, according to public health officials, is preventing young people from starting to use tobacco. Very few people begin to use tobacco as adults; almost all first use has occurred by the time people graduate from high school. By the age of 18, one in three persons is using tobacco. The earlier young people begin using tobacco, the more heavily they are likely to use it as adults, and the longer potential time they have to be users. Both the duration and the amount of tobacco use are related to eventual chronic health problems. This publication is adapted from Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People: A Report of the Surgeon General released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1994. The excerpts presented here provide important information for educators about the vulnerable ages of 10 through 18 when most users start smoking, chewing, or dipping and become addicted to tobacco. It underscores the seriousness of tobacco use and the relationship of tobacco use to other adolescent problem behaviors.