HARVEY, Ill., Dec. 19 — Janel Horton, 17, has been smoking since she was 11, but she admits to being the odd bird among her friends, many of whom have kicked the habit or never even started.

"They stopped because of the things people told them, like they get cancer and all that stuff," said Ms. Horton, standing outside Thornton High School here. Her observation was echoed in a national study released today showing that teenage smoking has fallen sharply since peaking in 1996. News of the survey, released by the Department of Health and Human Services and the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, was cause for optimism, experts and opponents of smoking said. Researchers at the University of Michigan who conducted the study found that from 1996 to 2001, the percentage of eighth graders who were smoking fell to 12 percent, from 21 percent. Among 10th graders, the number fell to 21 percent, down from 30 percent, and among 12th graders, smoking fell to 30 percent in 2001, down from 37 percent in 1997. The study's director, Lloyd D. Johnston, attributed the decline to the increased cost of cigarettes and an aggressive antismoking campaign, both nationally and in some states, as well as the withdrawal of some tobacco advertising. Antismoking campaigns, Mr. Johnston said, have diminished the attraction of cigarettes by emphasizing the hazards of smoking and helping to mold new attitudes. "There really is an attitudinal shift going on," he said, "with more young people saying that they see smoking as dangerous, more saying they personally disapprove of smoking, more saying that their friends would disapprove of their smoking. So the social acceptability of smoking is changing in some important ways." Although Ms. Horton continues to smoke, it is not because she is unaware of the risks or because she has not seen the slick antismoking commercials on television, or that she is not getting lots of peer pressure from her nonsmoking friends, she said. "My sister got me doing that, and it's addictive," said Ms. Horton, a junior at Thornwood, in Chicago's southern suburbs. "I can't stop." "I believe it," she said of the anti- smoking advertisements. "It's just the fact that when my nerves go bad and stuff, I just start smoking." Elsewhere, the news that smoking among teenagers has declined came as a surprise to students taking cigarette breaks on the steps behind Garfield High School in Seattle. "That's not true," said Cindy Polkinghorn, 17, a junior, who took her first drag from a cigarette at 12. "I don't believe it," added Myra, 16, a sophomore who would not give her last name, but who said she had smoked for two years. The girls said that many of their peers smoke, even though "a lot of people think smoking is disgusting," Myra said. But other teenagers, like Jorge Anaut, 15, of Miami, say they have never tried smoking and never will. "I don't like it," Jorge said. "I'm not interested. I know what happens to smokers. I've heard about it on talk shows, the Discovery Channel and in health class. People explain the consequences." Outside Thornton High, Tania Cashaw, 16, a junior, said the antismoking message from school sank in two years ago. That was when she quit smoking. Other students said they had noticed the trend. "Many kids are tired of smoking. They see that people are dying from smoking," said Jason Clark, 17, a Thornton junior. Cheryl Healton, president of the American Legacy Foundation, a public health foundation created as part of the 1998 settlement agreement by the states with tobacco companies, attributed the decline in teenage smoking partly to American Legacy's Truth Campaign, which has produced advertisements that seem to have resonated among teenagers. "The campaign is based on changing the social norms around tobacco and encouraging young people to rebel against the concept of becoming addicted to tobacco," Ms. Healton, a professor of public health at Columbia University, said in a telephone interview. "What I was particularly excited about," she said, "was the changing attitudes of young people toward tobacco, because attitudinal shifts precede behavioral shifts." The Michigan study was based on nationally representative surveys of some 44,000 students in Grades 8, 10 and 12. The latest findings are in contrast to the sharp increase in teenage smoking observed in the early 1990's, Mr. Johnston said. Despite the good news, Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, cautioned against overconfidence. "The survey is a good news, bad news story," Mr. Myers said. "The sharp declines demonstrate that higher prices are having a dramatic effect on reductions. The bad news is that states cannot take this as a signal to cut back on funding for education programs. If they do, we'll see the declines disappear." Many observers contend that the war is far from over. In Coral Gables, Fla., Gordie Sacasa, 16, said he started smoking at 11 because his older friends smoked, and he continues to smoke although most of those friends have since quit. It is not that he has not gotten the message. "My mom passed away from lung cancer, so I know the danger," he said, "but I like to smoke. I think they will find a cure for cancer in a couple years so I don't worry about it."

<< Prev	CIGoutlet.NET News Home	Next >>