Teen smoking rates hit new lows, reveals survey

Teen smoking rates have dropped in the past decade to reach new lows.

Action on Smoking and Health's (Ash) Year 10 Snapshot Survey for 2008 showed a record 61 per cent of pupils aged 14 and 15 nationwide have never tried smoking, compared with 32 per cent in 1999.

The number of teens who said they smoked daily has dropped to 7 per cent from 15.6 per cent in 1999, and the number who smoked regularly has dropped to 12 per cent from 29 per cent.

The survey found that more girls (8 per cent) smoked on a daily basis than boys (6 per cent).

The highest regular smoking rate was the domain of Maori girls, at 22 per cent, with Asian girls smoking the least (2 per cent).

Ash said while the results were encouraging, the decline in smoking rate was smaller than the drop-off between 2003 and 2005 after the introduction of the Smokefree Environments Act which banned smoking in school grounds, hospitals, workplaces, restaurants and bars.

Researcher Janine Paynter said the impact of the law change was wearing off and new policies would be needed to prevent more teens taking up smoking.

Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia said she was encouraged by the survey results but would be looking into what could be done to bring the Maori statistics down.

Ash surveyed 31,000 out of 61,000 Year 10 pupils.

- NZPA