Smoking Ban Improves Teen Life Expectancy

Released on: May 15, 2008, 11:25 am

Press Release Author: Michael Corvin

Industry: Healthcare

Press Release Summary: A recent Massachusetts study suggests that restaurant smoking
bans
may play an important role in preventing teens from becoming smokers. Teens who
lived in towns with strict smoking bans were almost 40 percent less likely to become
regular smokers rather than their counterparts who live weak bans or no bans.

Press Release Body: A recent Massachusetts study suggests that restaurant smoking
bans may play an important role in preventing teens from becoming smokers. Teens who
lived in towns with strict smoking bans were almost 40 percent less likely to become
regular smokers rather than their counterparts who live weak bans or no bans. This
study is reported in the May issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent
Medicine.

Led by Dr. Michael Siegel, of Boston University School of Public Health, the study
backed up the idea that smoking bans discourage tobacco use in teens by giving
negative impression smoking and reducing exposure to smokers in public places. \"When
kids grow up in an environment where they don\'t see smoking, they are going to think
it\'s not socially acceptable,\" he said. \"If they perceive a lot of other people are
smoking, they think it\'s the norm.\"

Siegel and the researchers tracked 2,791 children between ages 12 and 17 who lived
in the Massachusetts area. The teens were scrupulously studied for four years to
find out how many tried smoking and how many became regular smokers. In the end,
about nine percent became regular smokers. In addition to this, the study adds that
the rate for towns were smoking was restricted to a specific area show that the rate
was nearly 10 percent. However, it was under eight percent in places with tough
restaurant bans. But becoming more exposed to strong bans reduced the chances of
becoming smokers by up to 40 percent. \"There is really no other smoking intervention
program that could cut almost in half the rate of smoking,\" Siegel said.

Smoking bans also had a greater effect on younger teens than on older ones. The
researchers did not conclude whether the effects of strong bans on Massachusetts
have the same effect in other states since these states have different restrictions
and levels of aggression against smoking.

Web Site: http://www.drugstoretm.com

Contact Details: For Further Information contact:
Michael Corvin
Phone: (866)-2051
website: http://www.drugstoretm.com

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