"Cigarette smoking among American teenagers dropped to a record low in 2012, a decline that may have been partly driven by a sharp hike in the federal tobacco tax, researchers said on Wednesday."
"An annual survey of about 45,000 students in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades found that the overall proportion of those saying they had smoked in the prior 30 days fell by just over a percentage point to 10.6 percent.
'A one percentage point decline may not sound like a lot, but it represents about a 9 percent reduction in a single year in the number of teens currently smoking,' Lloyd Johnston, the principal investigator in the study, said in a statement."
Steve Gorman reports for Reuters December 20, 2012.
SEE ALSO:
"Why American Teens Are Turning from Cigarettes to Marijuana" (Christian Science Monitor)
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