Background: The smoking rate among adolescents has been decreasing in Japan. According to the National Survey, the current smoking rates of 7th grade students decreased from 7.5% (males) and 3.8% (females) in 1996 to 3.2% and 2.4% in 2004. In Kyoto, workshop-style tobacco-free classes based on theory of behavioral science have been conducted since 2002, in cooperation with a medical university, a medical association and the local government. Objective: During 2009, we conducted tobacco-free workshops for 3562 students at 26 municipal junior-high schools. In order to clarify the smoking status of these students, we investigated the perception of smoking and the relationship between smoking and other life-style habits. Subjects : There were 1644 students at 13 schools who agreed to participate in the survey. The response rate was 98.1%. Males: 820, Females: 721, not specified: 108. Methods: The questionnaire was anonymous and self-completed. We made sure that teachers would not check the questionnaire responses. Questions about lifestyle including smoking and drinking, were asked mainly in fourfold choice style. After analyzing the smoking status by school and sex, we examined the relationship between lifestyle and smoking. Results: The current smoking rate was less than 1% at half of the schools, but 3∼7% at 3 schools. Overall, 5.5% of the subjects had tried smoking, and 1.9% were current smokers. 52.9% were living with smokers; 46.7% had tried alcohol; 50.5% watched TV more than 3 hours a day and 4.4% shopped at convenience stores every day. Current smoking and previous smoking showed significant association with smoking by cohabiters, drinking experience, study time, attending school club activities and shopping at convenience stores. Discussion: The smoking prevalence of subjects was low compared with that in the National Survey, possibly because our subjects were not randomly selected and Kyoto has the lowest smoking prevalence among adults. This is the first report in Japan indicating that smoking habits may be related to shopping at convenience stores. The students are mainly buying cigarettes at convenience stores, where cigarettes companies place a large number of advertisements. Tobacco sales at convenience stores should be strictly monitored. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between the age at cigarette smoking onset and the smoking level among adolescent current smokers. In 2007, one or two classes of 10th and 11th grade were randomly selected from the high schools sampled by PPS (probability proportional to size) sampling after all the schools in a large city in Korea were stratified by grade, gender, and region. A total of 743 current smokers among a sample of 4,602 students were analyzed with a self-administered questionnaire. The smokers were defined as those who had smoked at least one cigarette during past one month. The age of smoking onset was measured as the grade when the respondents first tried a cigarette even one or two puffs. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by multiple logistic regression analysis and they were adjusted for potential confounders. Compared with those who tried smoking first after entrance into high school, the OR of being a frequent smoker (i.e. those who smoked on 20 days or more during the past one month) among those who tried during middle school period was 2.40 , that of those who tried smoking during late elementary school period was 3.70 (CI 1.67∼8.17), that of those who tried smoking early elementary school period or earlier was 3.91 (CI: 1.74∼8.78). The OR of being a regular smoker (i.e. those who smoked everyday) among those who tried during middle school period was 1.77 (CI: 1.14-2.76), that of those who tried smoking during late elementary school period was 2.34 (CI: 1.14∼4.78), that of those who tried smoking early elementary school period or earlier was 4.83 (CI: 2.19∼10.69). The OR of being a heavy smoker (i.e. those who smoked one-half pack or more per day on the average) among those who tried during middle school period was 3.61 (CI: 1.84-7.08), that of those who tried smoking during late elementary school period was 6.67 (CI: 2.87∼15.50), that of those who tried smoking early elementary school period or earlier was 5.65 (CI: 2.34∼13.62). This study showed the importance of smoking prevention or delaying smoking onset among children and adolescents. Background: Maternal employment has been shown to influence health behaviors of children and adolescents such as overweight and obesity. The evidence related to adolescent smoking is limited as well as results using UK data. In this analysis, we assessed the influence of maternal employment in three periods of childhood on smoking of young people aged 16-21 years in British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). Methods: BHPS is annual panel survey that has started in 1991 and completed its 17th wave in 2007. Response rate to wave 1 was 74%, and response between waves 2 and 17 varied between 84%-89%. There are 3,615 young individuals with available data on smoking at age 16-21 and maternal employment data from age 0-16 years. Covariates, such as gender, maternal age, maternal education and marital status, household income or maternal smoking were used as explanatory variables in logistic regression analysis in STATA 10. Results: 29% of young adults aged 16-21 reported being current smoker. Approximately 40% of mothers worked at some point during age 0-4 (preschool age) of their child. This proportion increased to 59% at age 5-11 (primary school age) and 68% at age 12-16 (secondary school age). Children of mothers who were not employed were more likely to smoke (OR of smoking 1.18, 1.19 and 1.60 for 3 periods of exposure), although these effects were almost entirely explained when adjusted for maternal education and household income. Conclusions: The associations between maternal employment in childhood and young adults' smoking exist at least partly because of the generally higher social position and more stable family structure of households with working mothers. Maternal education and household income seem to be stronger social predictors of adolescent smoking than maternal employment status. 1 Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan and 2 Kyoto First Red Cross Hospital, Kyoto, Japan.