Smoking among year 10 students has fallen to its lowest levels in more than 20 years, while more young people admit to experimenting with vaping, according to a major national survey.
Just 1.3 per cent of year 10s – aged between 13 and 14-years-old, are smoking daily down from 2 per cent in 2019, according to the snapshot survey, run by independent campaign organisation ASH (Action for Smokefree 2025).
More students than ever before admitted to trying vaping – 42.7 per cent, but the lion’s share of this appeared to be one-off experimental use.
“I’m not too worried about that. You will never stop kids experimenting,” ASH chairman and Emeritus Professor Robert Beaglehole said. “What’s so exciting about this is young people and indeed older people are giving up smoking. This is a watershed moment, but it’s an accumulation of a lot of things going on.”
Of the 26,000 students surveyed, just under 10 per cent were vaping daily, triple the last reported rate in 2019. But, importantly most of the experimental and daily vapers were smokers, Beaglehole said, and just 3 per cent of daily vapers had never smoked.
In December, the Government announced anyone aged 14 or under would never be able to legally buy tobacco, when a new law takes effect in 2023, part of a series of moves in recent years towards its Smokefree 2025 plan.
Rachel Thomas – Stuff – 2022-02-27.