Tobacco Documents Online

V" QE -t - ey/ d• by JOSEPH A. CALIFANO, Jt. Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, US.A. THS new Program on Smoking and Health that I, announced earlier this year is based on the premise that the only free choice is a fully informed choice. Its central objective is to provide the American- people-and- a• pecially our young people-with the in- fotmation they need to make a genu- inely free choice about smoking and their own health, Cigarette smoking is the primary preventable cause of disease and pre- mature death, in the United' Stata. Although we have made real progress against smoking since the 1964 Report of the Surgeon General on Smoking and Health, that progress has occurred almost entirely among adults. Between 1968 and 1974, the number of teenage smokers increased by 50 percent-from 3 million to 4.5 million: During that same period, the percentage of teenage girls who-smoke more than doubled, so that the difference in smoking rates between teenage girls and boys has vir• tually disappeared. The rate of teenage smoking is apparently on!the rise, and young people are starting to smoke at even younger ages. A study in one ma- jor urban area in Los Angeles shows one out of 20 children smoking at age 11. It shows that one year later-at age 12-one out oJS children smoke. These figures are deeply disturb- ing in two major respects. First, we know that more than 75 percent of all' current smokers started before their 21 st birthday. We also know- that the bat wayao stop smoking is not to start- smoking in thrfirst place. Anyone who smokes, or who has ever smoked,, knows how hard it is to kick the habit: Thus, the rise in the rate and number of; teenage smokers could well mean a similar rise in adult smoking in the years ahead. Second, we know that smoking during pregnancy has adverse effects on the fetus. We also know that smokers who use birth control pills face a far higher risk of heart disease than pill takers who do not smoke. For these reasons, we must be especially alarmed at the smoking rise among teenage girls. All of these facts underscore the urgency and importance of doing a far better job than we have done thus far 47

( of making certain that.every young per- son really understands what the risks are when he or she decides to smoke or not to smoke. Recently, for example, the Los Angeles Times ran a story on smoking among local high school stu- dents. I suspect that any adult who smokes, or used to smoke, would under- stand and empathize with the anguished cry of one 16-year-old boy quoted in that story who started smoking when he was ten. "There's nothing, this young man said, "about cigarettes that I like. I would do anything if I could quit. I remember it was the big thing to do when I started. Now I smoke because I have to. I can tell you this: I'm not proud to be a smoker." cont. from p.11 International Conference convince our governments not to export tobacco and we must sup- port the World Health Organiza- tion in its efforts to discourage tobacco cultivation and use: It seems ironic that WHO has or- ganized risk factor projects to help people quit smoking in the developed countries, while little is done to prevent people from start- Most of the new program on smoking and health is aimed at young people like that-at finding out what influences them to smoke or not to smoke and what are the most effective ways of enabling them to make a fully informed-and thus fully free-choice. Far from coercing these young people,, the new program seeks to counter the pervasive and powerful pressures with- in our society which persuade these young people that smoking is the attrac- tive, the "in" thing, to do. That is an effort that deserves- andi in the last analysis. depends upon -the active support of those adults who, by their example, exert such an enor- mous influence upon the behavior of our young people.  The proceedings of the Interna- tional Conference on Smoking Cessa- tion wi7t be publishe& by the American Cancer Society under the title, Progress in Smoking Cessation, in early 1979. Write to the Public Education Depart- ment. American Cancer Society, 777 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017, U.S.A.  'ing to smoke in the developingg countries. O ~ 48 ~ G?. tV 1-+ Gtt