Meetings & Conventions: Short Cuts December 1998
December 1998
Short Cuts:
HEALTH BEAT
Are your kids smoking? Don’t be surprised if
the answer is “yes.” From 1988 to 1996, the number of kids ages 12
to 17 who tried cigarettes increased by 30 percent, and the number
who started smoking daily rose by 50 percent, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Teen smoking was on the downswing during much of the ’70s and
’80s, but those positive trends have reversed, says the CDC, based
on data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Each day,
more than 6,000 kids under 18 try a cigarette for the first time
and 3,000 become daily smokers.
Those who think they won’t get hooked are generally mistaken: Of
daily smokers who think they will no longer be smoking in five
years, nearly 75 percent are still at it five to six years later.
If trends continue, warns the CDC report, “approximately 5 million
persons under age 18 will die eventually from a
smoking-attributable disease.”
Back to
Current Issue index | Back to
Short Cuts indexM&C
Home PageCurrent
Issue |
Events Calendar |
Newsline |
Incentive News |
Meetings Market
ReportEditorial
Libraries |
CVB Links |
Reader Survey |
Hot Dates |
Contact M&C