Tobacco Documents Online

WHY DO YOUNG PEOPLE BEGIN SMOKING? • • Today, antismoking activists are pointing the finger at tobacco advertising as the cause of smoking by minors. For years before that, however, antismoking activists and government researchers admitted that advertising does not cause people to smoke -- that family and friends are the primary influences on smoking by young people. Michael Pertschuk, the former Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, who now helps direct the antismoking lobby, told a Harvard University audience in 1983 that "[n]o one really pretends that advertising is a major determinant of smoking in this country or any other." Dr. Mortimer Lipsett, the Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, told Congress in 1983 that "[t]he most forceful determinants of smoking [by young people] are parents, peers, and other siblings." • As recently as 1989, Surgeon General Koop acknowledged that '[t]here is no scientifically rigorous study available to the public that provides a definitive answer to the basic question whether advertising and promotion increase the level of tobacco consumption." • Numerous studies, including a four-country survey by the World Health Organization, confirm the conclusion that family and peers are the primary predictors of smoking behavior of young people, and that advertising plays no significant role. -- Recent articles in the British Journal of Addiction ( 199 1, 1992) have emphasized the key role of parents and family in juveniles' smoking decisions. Advertising was not mentioned as a significant factor in either initiation or maintenance of juvenile smoking. -- A study of Japanese youth published in 1988 reported that peer smoking was "most strongly related" to individual's smoking. ~ ~ -- A study for the government of Hong Kong published in ~ 1990 found that the prevalence of youth smoking "is ~' significantly related to family smoking habits." ~ ~ 0 ©o ~ U~

-2- • A World Health Organization regional director stated in 1988: "Smoking among children and adolescents is heavily linked to smoking behavior of parents." • A four-country survey by the World Health Organization stated: "When young people start smoking, the most important predictor is the smoking behavior and smoking related activities of significant others." • In Finland and Sweden, where tobacco advertising has been severely restricted or banned for more than a decade, the incidence of smoking among youth has either remained essentially the same or increased since imposition of the " restrictions or b ans. In Finland, University of Helsinki researchers found that smoking among juveniles is higher today than when tobacco advertising was banned in 1978. In Sweden, tobacco advertising has been severely restricted since 1979. Between 1980 and 1982, the incidence of smoking among teenagers in Sweden didn't decline. Following a brief, subsequent decline, smoking began to increase in 1984. Antitobacco researchers noted in 1991 that "tobacco use is once more on the rise in the younger age groups in Sweden." • In Norway, tobacco advertising was banned in 1975. But overall smoking prevalence has remained essentially unchanged since the late 1970s, making a decline in smoking among young people highly doubtful. If juvenile smoking incidence had declined significantly since 1975, as claimed by antismoking advocates, adult smoking incidence would have fallen correspondingly. Researchers concluded in article published in Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association: "Even though the law to stop tobacco advertising has a meaningful content, we cannot see that it has had a fundamental effect upon the sale or use of tobacco." S • Exerts who have studied the issue for the advertising and tobacco industries also have reported that a young person's

• 0 decision to start smoking is influenced primarily by his parents, peers and siblings. -- For example, a 16-country Children's Research Unit (CRU) study found that in all countries surveyed, the chances of a child smoking were lowest in households where there were no other smokers, and highest in households where parents or older siblings smoked. • A recent survey by RSB Research found that simply because children have a high level of awareness for a brand, this does not mean that they have any interest in using the product. As a matter of fact, the children who had higher recognition of cigarette advertisements were not more likely to have tried smoking. Conclu sion • There is no reason to believe that banning cigarette advertising would lead to reduced smoking among young people, given the demonstrated role of parents and siblings and the absence of evidence that advertising has any significant effect on youth smoking. Z\D ~ ~ CID oo. Uo