[ OUR OPINION ]
TOBACCO use by young people increased in the 1990s but appears to have leveled off, nationally and in Hawaii. A large percentage of youths continue to become addicted to nicotine, and further efforts are needed to educate them about the health dangers of smoking. A new television campaign targeted by the state Department of Health at teenagers takes the right approach. TV ads take right aim
at teen smoking
THE ISSUE The state is sponsoring television ads aimed at discouraging young people from smoking.
"Leave um where they're at" is the message written and performed by local rap artist Mo Luv in the 60-second TV spot that debuted last week. Many youths are known to try cigarettes in defiance of authority, and the message is aimed at "encouraging youth to turn their rebellious nature against the tobacco industry's efforts to manipulate them," says Julian Lipsher, coordinator for the department's Tobacco Prevention & Education Program.
This is vital because studies show that more than 80 percent of adults who smoke picked up the habit when they were in their teens. The lifelong addiction can be acquired in only a few weeks.
Cigarette smoking among high-school students ranges from 11.9 percent in Utah to 40.6 percent in North Dakota. Hawaii's 24.5 percent is below the national average of 28 percent, both down slightly from recent years.
The Health Department last month began publishing the names of Hawaii stores where cashiers have been caught selling tobacco products to minors, an important step toward preventing their access to cigarettes. Monthly inspections of businesses have been conducted since 1996 to monitor the illegal sales of such products to people under 18 years old.
Smoking among Hawaii's young people still is unacceptably high, especially considering the dollars that have been spent on the effort to combat the use of tobacco products. Hawaii is among only six states spending recommended minimal amounts of its share of the national tobacco settlement on combatting tobacco use. Indeed, Hawaii's annual tobacco-control budget per capital is the most expensive in the nation -- $19.16, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The center's recommended minimum is only $10 per capita.
The Health Department launched an expensive -- and inappropriate -- media campaign last year to put pressure on the City Council to ban smoking in restaurants. That successful effort probably resulted in little if any reduction of the more troubling occurrence of teens taking their first puffs.
Having won its battle against the restaurant industry, the department should turn its full attention to discouraging teen smoking. Mo Luv's lyrics are a good addition.
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