Current Tobacco Use Statistics, Nationwide

As reported in the 1999 CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) (CDC, 1999), a school-based survey of high school students, 35% smoked cigarettes during the previous month. Nationwide, 70.4% of students had ever tried cigarette smoking (even one or two puffs), and one fourth (24.7%) of students had smoked a whole cigarette before age 13 years.
Following is a brief summary highlighting findings from the 1999 CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). For more detailed information on the 1999 CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), see <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss4905a1.html>

Overall:

• Male students (37.6%) were significantly more likely than female students (27.9%) to report current tobacco use.
  
  
• White and Hispanic students (38.6% and 32.7%, respectively) were significantly more likely than black students (19.7%) to report current cigarette use.

Nationwide:

• 5.2% of students who reported current cigarette use, smoked >10 cigarettes/day on the days they smoked.
  
  
• 7.8% of students had used smokeless tobacco (chewing tobacco or snuff) on >1 of the 30 days preceding the survey (i.e., current smokeless tobacco use).
  
  
• 17.7% of students had smoked cigars, cigarillos, or little cigars on >1 of the 30 days preceding the survey.
  
  
• 23.5% of these students had purchased their cigarettes in a store or gas station during the 30 days preceding the survey. Approximately two thirds of students (69.6%) who purchased cigarettes in a store or gas station had not been asked to show proof of age
  
  

Current Tobacco Use, Arizona

Following is a brief summary highlighting findings from the 2000 Arizona Youth Tobacco Survey: Middle School, Grades 6-8 (Gowda, 2001). For detailed information on 2000 Arizona Tobacco Use Survey of middle school grades 6-8, see:http://www.azteppdata.org/publications/2000youthsurvey/index.html.

Overall:

• Slightly less than forty percent (37.7%) of middle school students report they have tried smoking cigarettes.
   
  • 11.4% of middle school students report smoking on one or more days during the past month.
     
  • Three out of ten (30.3%) middle school students report they tried their first whole cigarette
    before the age of eleven.
    
    
• Males (16.2%) are more likely than females (10.0%) to report they ever used smokeless tobacco.
  
  
• A little over a fifth (21.9%) of middle school students report they ever smoked a cigar, and 6.1% of
  students report smoking cigars on one or more days during the past month.
  
  
• Less than half (46.4%) of middle school students report they have ever used any form of tobacco, and 17.1% report using any form of tobacco on one or more days during the past month.
  
  
• Males (18.5%) are more likely than females (11.8%) to report they think it is safe to smoke a year or two, as long as you quit after that.
  
  
• Slightly less than a fifth (18.9%) of middle school students who have been to a doctor's office
  during the past year report they have been told of the dangers of tobacco use.
  
  
• Over a third (38.9%) of current (defined as smoking cigarettes on one or more days during the past month) middle school smokers (under age 18) report they bought their last pack of cigarettes in a convenience store during the past month. Only a quarter (25.5%) of current middle school smokers who bought cigarettes in any kind of store were refused cigarettes because of their age during the past month.
  
  
• Slightly less than two-thirds (64.7%) of middle school students who smoked during the past year report they tried to quit smoking, and 60.0% of students who smoke now want to stop smoking cigarettes.
  
  
• 20.1% of middle school students report they have ever participated in a program to help quit using tobacco