Smokeless tobacco ads decreased smoking among young people

Adolescence is a high-risk period for beginning smoking. Researchers showed that young people face enormous pressures to smoke. The tobacco industry devotes an annual budget of nearly $4 billion to advertising and promoting cigarettes.

American researchers demonstrated that if young people do not start smoking during adolescence, they are unlikely ever to do so.

That’s why in most popular magazines were published antismoking advertisements from tobacco companies.

According to a study more and more young people became interested in reading them.

As we know advertising can make smokeless tobacco attractive to young people.

Health experts added that adolescents are less informed about smoking detrimental, they said: "This may suggest that young people aren't educated about the dangers of smokeless tobacco to the same extent that they are educated about the dangers of cigarettes".

Despite the tobacco smoke risks, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey reported that 8 percent of high school students had used smokeless tobacco in the last 30 days, with a rate of 14 percent among males.

Health Researchers decided to find how much smokeless tobacco advertising appeared in magazines with readers of ages 12 to 17.

They found that more than $107 million was spent on smokeless tobacco advertising in 17 magazines with high youth readership, such as Motor Trend, Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated. U.S. Smokeless Tobacco (UST), one of the country's largest manufacturers of the products, spent 74.6 percent of that amount.

They also found that smokeless tobacco advertisements reached more than 64 percent of adolescents.

Health investigators added: "The media play an important role among young people. Media vehicles know who their audiences are and should be cautious in accepting advertising for products like smokeless tobacco when the vehicles have young audiences."

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