Smoking Prevention Working Group Survey

21 Dec 2006 - 28 Feb 2007
Read the results from the recent survey on preventing young people from starting to smoke and helping those who do to stop.

The Smoking Prevention Working group was looking at smoking across Scotland and have come up with some recommendations for the Scottish Government to help prevent young people from starting to smoke and to support those who do smoke to stop.

Here�s some key information about smoking in Scotland that the group found:

NHS Health Scotland has been working with young people to create TV advertisements around smoking for many years and young people are more aware of the effects of smoking.
Most of us know that smoking is very bad for us, but by the age of 15, 64% young people have tried it.
People tend to continue to smoke because the nicotine in cigarettes is addictive.
24% of 15 year old girls smoke, where as only 14% of 15 year old boys smoke.
There seems to be lots of different things associated with smoking, such as whether your parents smoke and how your school views smoking.
Packets of ten cigarettes are popular amongst young people because they are cheapest.
Shops don�t always ask for ID when a young person buys cigarettes, meaning that it is possible for those underage to buy them without being discovered.
Although tobacco advertising and sponsorship are now banned, smoking still appears in the media through TV, films and magazines featuring celebrities smoking.
Lots of different ways of stopping young people from smoking have been tried across the world, with some more successful than others. These can include sessions at school, TV and magazine adverts and help at your local health or community centre.
In schools, young people are taught about the dangers of smoking but other services aimed specifically at helping young people stop smoking have not been successful.

The Smoking Prevention Working Group asked for your views on smoking prevention and young people. For the full report on the views of those who completed the survey, check out the PDF file in Useful Files on the left hand side of this page.

The Smoking Prevention Working Group Survey is now closed