Anti-Smoking Ads: Keep It Up

Is California’s decade-long crusade against tobacco paying off? A state survey released earlier this month finds that smoking among California teenagers, whose moth-to-flame smoking habits have long troubled public health officials, has declined by more than one-third.

Data from the state Department of Health Services shows that 6.9% of California youths ages 12 to 17 smoked in 1999, down from 10.7% in 1998. That’s very good news since many kids who take up smoking to be cool later realize they are hooked and can’t shake a habit that can prove to be lifelong and deadly.

This kind of success has a million fathers. California’s multi-pronged effort to cut smoking can rightfully claim some credit. Voter approval of Proposition 99 added a 25-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes, generating millions annually for anti-tobacco efforts, including hard-hitting television ads. A tough state law now bars smoking in most public settings, and political jawboning, as well as litigation against the cigarette makers, including this month’s $145-billion verdict in a Florida class-action case, has further damaged cigarettes’ image. Another tax hike last year, 50 cents a pack imposed by Proposition 10, may have put the cost of cigarettes beyond the reach of many teenagers.

Smoking among California adults too is less, falling just slightly in the past year from 18.4% to 18% but down significantly since the 1980s. Nationally, a fourth of adults smoke.

Alas, the news is not all good. The health department survey found that while smoking is down among teens, it’s up slightly among young adults, 18 to 24. This is the generation that grew up with Joe Camel cartoons and is now the focus of tobacco industry marketing, factors that may explain the rise. Also, these smokers might be thumbing their noses at those who have hectored them on the dangers of tobacco.

In any event, the state’s latest more-good-news-than-bad survey should at least prompt Gov. Gray Davis to continue funding the thoughtful, targeted efforts begun a decade ago to keep kids from smoking in the first place and to help those who want to quit.