THERE has been a huge drop in the number of 14- and 15-year-olds smoking. Ten years ago there were three times as many as today and there are only half as many in Guernsey as in England.
The figures are the result of a survey of almost all of the island’s Year 8 and Year 10 pupils which was jointly funded and undertaken by the Drug and Alcohol Strategy and the Guernsey Adolescent Smokefree Project.
Education and Health, which have published the results of the survey, said that the results show the impact of the package of smoking measures which were first introduced in 1997.
Gasp chairman Alun Williams said that it was very pleased with the results.
‘It’s a testament to young people that they’ve made a decision about their lifestyles,’ he said. ‘It shows that smoking doesn’t make sense.’
He said that he thought young people had finally caught on to the health messages and considered smoking as both unacceptable and unattractive.
‘Having to shelter outside somewhere late at night just isn’t glamorous,’ he said. ‘It’s simply not worth smoking.’
Measures taken by the States including raising the legal purchase age to 18 and an increasing tax annually seem to have prevented youngsters from coughing up money for cigarettes so readily, he added.
Gasp manager Diane Lawrence said that she thought the message was filtering through, but that the credit had to go to the young people themselves.
She added that what made young people reach for cigarettes hadn’t really changed over the years - that it was often a case of bad role models and peer pressure.
When asked if restricting the availability of tobacco to young people only served to make the activity more attractive, Miss Lawrence said that she did not think it was a case of ‘forbidden fruit’.
‘They don’t seem to take that on board,’ she said.
‘When the minimum age for purchasing cigarettes changed to 18 the number of young people smoking reduced, so I don’t think that stands as an argument.’
However, Mr Williams said that there was no room for complacency.
The group was concerned that one in eight young people were still lighting up and in particular the number of Year 8 girls smoking had risen, from 3% in 2002 to 7% this year.
‘We’ve seen a real sea change in the last 10 years,’ he said. ‘You need a real package of measures. The smoking ban on its own doesn’t work.
‘We will be targeting particular groups of young people who are smoking and we need engaging role models to support us.’
Article posted on 29th June, 2007 - 12.00am
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