33% Drop in Teen Smoking

The number of teenagers who have started smoking has fallen by a striking one-third in two years, the government reported Thursday.

More than 3,000 teens began smoking each day in 1997, a record high that has been widely cited in the effort to stem tobacco use by young people.

But the number of new teen smokers fell in 1998 and again in 1999, when it reached 2,145 per day, a 33% drop, according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, an annual benchmark for drug, alcohol and tobacco use.

Teen drug and alcohol use held steady in 2000, the survey found, a finding consistent with other government research.

The survey found that the number of new smokers of all ages dropped in 1998 and 1999. Teenagers easily remained the most likely people to start smoking.

Experts cited a cultural shift and a hike in the price of cigarettes. But they were hard-pressed to fully explain such a sharp drop in such a short period of time, and they suggested that a third year of data may be needed to confirm the scope of the trend.

Still, they said, this and other surveys make it clear that teen smoking is declining.

The drop took place during tough years and bad press for cigarette makers, who faced a spate of government lawsuits over the cost of treating sick smokers, an attempt to impose federal regulation over the industry and the revelation of documents that showed companies were marketing to children and teens.

In 1998, tobacco companies agreed to pay $246 billion to settle lawsuits from state governments and went along with unprecedented new restrictions on advertising and marketing.

That contributed to higher prices. The average price of a pack of cigarettes went from $1.85 in the beginning of 1997 to $2.92 at the end of 1999. Several studies have found that teens are particularly sensitive to the cost of cigarettes.

At the same time, states stepped up anti-smoking ad campaigns and, beginning in 1999, some used their money from the court settlement to discourage tobacco use. Restaurants were going smoke-free, and local governments were approving anti-smoking laws.

“What you’re seeing is sort of a cultural swing here, and the kids pick up on it,” said Dr. Joseph H. Autry III, acting administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services that conducts the survey.