When I was a teen in a small Midwestern town in the 1970s, the US high school smoking rate was over 25 percent.
It was legal for 16-year-olds in many states to purchase tobacco products, and many high schools had designated smoking areas where both students and teachers took smoke breaks.
Thankfully, by the turn of the millennium, high school smoking had dropped to about 20 percent.By 2011, high school smoking had dropped to 16 percent.
Then, over the past decade, US high school smoking dropped a further 90 percent. “Current use” of combustible tobacco cigarettes is now 1.9 percent. But for teens, “current use” means even one puff in the past month. “Frequent use” (20 or more days per month) is now 0.38 percent. Essentially nil.
We should all be dancing in the streets. Except we’re not. Because declines over the past decade coincide with the “e-cigarette era.”
Most smokers start in their teens. And teens basically don’t smoke now. Let that sink in. As this age group ages, the age of smoking will be over. Today’s teens will not die horribly from smoking-related cancer, heart and lung disease. We should all be dancing in the streets.
Charles Gardner – Filter – 2022-09-12.
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