Yet, with all the facts about smoking at their disposal, every day almost 5,000 U.S. teens try cigarettes for the first time, and about 2,000 go on to become regular smokers, according to the latest survey results from the University of California, San Diego. Furthermore, the rate of national teenage smoking has increased steadily since 1990, and studies show that children and adolescents are starting to smoke at earlier and earlier ages. Researchers speculate that many young people start smoking because of peer pressure, and because of the glamorization of smoking on television and in the movies, and in advertisements. Surveys show teens respond more to cigarette advertising than adults. The CDC says those three brands garner 86 percent of the teenage cigarette market, but only account for 35 percent of overall sales.
Researchers say there are a couple other factors why teens smoke.
Another is that some children see smoking as a way to lose weight. A study of 16,000 children, ages 9 to 14, recently found that youngsters who want to lose weight are more likely to experiment with cigarettes, according to one of the study's authors, Dr. Alison Field of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Whatever their reasons, young people say they find it easy to get cigarettes despite laws banning the sale of tobacco to minors. Only 12 percent thought it would be difficult. A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation survey in 1995 found that a large majority of Americans favored tightening restrictions on youth access to tobacco - including the further restriction of tobacco advertisements, packaging and vending machine sales.