Surgeon General - Fight against teen smoking has stalled

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), cigarette smoking is the leading cause of death in the world. Unfortunately, the US campaign to curb smoking in teens and young adults has stalled.

ATLANTA, GA (Catholic Online) - The latest report from the US Surgeon General focuses on how to stop teens and young adults from smoking. 

The first report on the harmful effects of smoking came out more than 40 years ago, but despite four decades of awareness, the new report reveals that children as young as 10 years old are developing tobacco addictions. According to the Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, "Every day 1,200 Americans die from smoking. And each of those people are being replaced by two young smokers."

If the goals is to stop teens and kids from smoking, the report shows there's a long way to go. One of the distinct challenges is that teens are more vulnerable to nicotine addiction than adults. However, if teens can be dissuaded from smoking until they turn 18, they are much less likely to become smokers as adults.

More than 90 percent of smokers started smoking before the age of 18.

According to Dr. Benjamin, more than 600,000 middle school students smoke as well as three million high school students. "I want our next generation to be tobacco free" she said.

The report also accuses tobacco companies for running campaigns that target teens and make tobacco look like candy. 

However, one solution that has had an impact have been taxes and raising prices on cigarettes. Raising the price on cigarettes makes them too expensive for many teens to buy and greatly reduces the rate of consumption. 

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