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Statement by Dr. Cheryl Healton, President and CEO, American Legacy Foundation® on the Centers for Disease Control's Report on Cigarette Smoking among High School Students
6/26/2008
Washington, D.C. – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today included a report, Cigarette Use among High School Students — United States–2007, in its weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report.
The American Legacy Foundation, the national public health foundation devoted to keeping young people from smoking and helping all smokers quit, is encouraged by some of the report’s findings. It is positive progress that youth smokers who had ever tried smoking in their lifetimes declined from 70.1 percent in 1999 to 50.3 percent in 2007, after a stable period from 1991-1999. This suggests that smoking may be becoming increasingly de-normalized in our culture; with fewer young people seeing smoking as mainstream or a rite of passage. In addition, the prevalence of current frequent youth smokers (those who have smoked more than 20 cigarettes in the preceding 30 days), declined, although this decline was not significant from 2006-2007. In that group, prevalence rose from 12.7 percent in 1991 to 16.8 percent in 1999, but dropped to only 8.1 percent in 2007.
However, the more troubling data in the report found that the prevalence of current cigarette use among high school students remained virtually unchanged from 2003 to 2007. This followed an increase from 27.5 percent in 1991 to 36.4 percent in 1997, and subsequently, a decline to 21.9 percent in 2003. The national health objective for 2010, calling for reducing current cigarette use among high school students to 16 percent or less, can only be achieved if the declines observed during 1997-2003 resume.
More progress must be made to ensure youngsters at these critical age levels continue to turn away from smoking. While some of today’s news is encouraging, its mixed message notes that there is clearly a continued need for tobacco prevention and control efforts we know work – including proven counter-marketing campaigns like Legacy’s truth® youth smoking prevention campaign – the only national youth smoking prevention campaign not directed by the tobacco industry. A growing body of research has found the campaign effective in contributing to the decline in youth smoking rates in our country.
In order to return to the declines in current smoking that were witnessed from 1997-2003, comprehensive tobacco control programs must be also implemented to complement counter-advertising mass media campaigns. Such community-level programs include school-based prevention policies and programs, reductions in tobacco advertising and availability, and higher prices for tobacco products across the board.
Research has found that the truth® campaign accelerated the decline in youth smoking rates between 2000 and 2002. Twenty-two percent of the overall decline in youth smoking during these years is attributable directly to the truth® campaign, according to research published in the March 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. The study, which was the first to evaluate the behavioral outcomes of the truth® campaign, found that in 2002 there were approximately 300,000 fewer youth smokers as a result of truth®.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recognized the impact of truth® and is now a key partner in further extending the reach of the campaign. Through a three-year, $3.6 million matching grant from the CDC, the campaign is increasing its advertising in 18 states and 41 cities, reaching a broader range of youth, including young people in rural and surrounding smaller communities that typically have less exposure to the campaign because of low cable television penetration. The CDC has renewed its grant with the foundation for a second phase of truth® advertising.
Also, this summer, in a continued effort to reach teens and share information about the addictiveness of tobacco products, the adverse health effects of tobacco use, and the social consequences of smoking, truth® launched its 9th annual nationwide tour on Friday, June 13 in Jackson, Mississippi. Throughout the summer, truth® “crew members” will interact with local youth across the country to educate them and give them the information they need to make their own informed choices about tobacco use. Every year the dedicated young adults who make up the truth® crews for the tour connect with more than 700,000 teens at popular summer musical and sporting events.
On any given day in our country, nearly 4,000 youth try their first cigarette. Teens who experiment with smoking can unwittingly be trapped into a lifetime of addiction and ultimately, tobacco-related disease and death. It is our duty as a nation to ensure effective tobacco control programs continue to reach youth vulnerable to smoking, so we can build a legacy of healthy Americans.
The American Legacy Foundation® is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The foundation’s programs include truth®, a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth smoking; EX®, an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting; research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renowned program of outreach to priority populations. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit http://www.americanlegacy.org/.
BACKGROUND ON THE truth® CAMPAIGN
truth®, launched in February 2000, is the largest national youth smoking prevention campaign and the only national campaign not directed by the tobacco industry. The campaign exposes the tactics of the tobacco industry, the truth about addiction, and the health effects and social consequences of smoking. truth®, allows teens to make informed choices about tobacco use by giving them the facts about the industry and its products. The campaign was created by the American Legacy Foundation, which was founded as a result of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between the tobacco industry, 46 states and five U.S. territories. Payments to the American Legacy Foundation are made on behalf of the settling states.
In February 2005 the American Legacy Foundation released the results of an evaluation of the national truth® campaign that was published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study found that 22 percent of the overall decline in youth smoking during the first two years of the campaign (2000-2002) is directly attributable to truth®. This equates to 300,000 fewer youth smokers in 2002 as a result of the campaign.
The American Legacy Foundation, which provides strategic direction and funding for the truth® campaign, received in 2003 what is likely its final payment to the National Public Education Fund established by the Master Settlement Agreement. Despite its success, the truth® campaign now faces an unprecedented funding challenge.
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Contact: Patricia McLaughlin, 202-454-5560, pmclauhglin@americanlegacy.org