According to a new report young people from Uganda have taken to the habit of cigarette-smoking and general tobacco use.

The Global Youth Tobacco Survey analyzed smoking behaviors and attitudes of more than 4,000 students from Uganda. Of these, 5 percent of students smoke cigarettes while the rest use other tobacco products like chewing tobacco, snuff and cigars. According to this study, 6.7 percent of the boys and girls were also likely to start smoking this year.

The study was conducted in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education and Sports.

"While Uganda has ratified an international treaty on tobacco prevention and control and enacted policies regulating smoking in public places, findings indicate high prevalence of tobacco use, exposure to secondhand smoke and pro-tobacco messages in the media and advertising among adolescent school students," said the researchers of the study.

Researchers didn’t find the significant difference between boys and girls, which means that more girls are taking up the tobacco habit. The study also notes that girls are taking to smoking as much as boys. While 17% boys smoke, 15% of girls are also smoking.

The psychiatrist said that many of the young people in the clinic say that they did not want to start smoking but ended up doing so due to peer pressure.

Many students think that boys who smoke had more friends than those who did not. They also think that girls who smoke are more attractive.

The World Health Organization estimates that at least 1.8 billion of young people between the age of 10 and 24 smoke cigarettes and more than 85 percent are found in developing countries like Uganda while 80,000 to 90,000 children in the world take to tobacco every day.

Because the ban on advertising of tobacco products in Uganda has not been well enforced, students said that they had seen pro-cigarette ads in the newspapers and magazines in the previous 30 days while some claimed that they had been offered free cigarettes by representatives of a tobacco company.