煙草在線據謝比爾鎮來源報紙報道編譯　　研究人員12月26日稱，美國青少年的吸煙率在2012年降至歷史最低，吸煙率下降的部分原因可能是受聯邦煙草稅大幅上漲的驅動。

　　對8年級、10年級和12年級的大約4.5萬名學生進行的年度調查結果顯示，那些稱他們在過去30天內吸過煙的學生總比例僅僅下降了超過一個百分點，降至10.6%。

　　“下降一個百分點聽起來可能不算太多，但它表示目前吸煙的青少年數量在一年內減少了大約9%，”該調查的主要調查人員勞埃德·約翰斯頓在一份聲明中說道。

　　他表示，下降的比例可轉化為能夠預防數千個過早死亡及上萬例癌癥和其它嚴重的疾病。

　　專家稱，預計每年將有超過40萬的美國人會因吸煙而過早死亡——吸煙是美國可預防死亡的頭號殺手——而且大多數吸煙者是在青少年時期開始吸煙的。

　　衛生保健倡議者歡呼12月26日的調查結果證明了較高的卷煙稅是有效的，而且聯邦政府對傾向于年輕人的煙草營銷和銷售的抑制以及全面的反對煙草的媒體宣傳也是有效的。

　　研究人員還表示，2009年把每包卷煙的聯邦卷煙稅提高62美分也是起作用的一個因素。該調查是密歇根大學的研究人員進行的年度調查的一部分，是由美國國家藥物濫用研究所發布的。

　　該調查結果顯示，接受調查的每個獨立年級的吸煙率都下降了，但8年級的吸煙率下降最明顯——從2011年的6.1%下降到2012年的4.9%。

　　研究人員稱，長期趨勢顯示，自20世紀90年代中期青少年吸煙率達到最高以來，8年級學生的吸煙率下降了四分之三左右、10年級的下降了三分之二、12年級的下降了一半。

　　專家指出，其中一個原因是曾經嘗試吸煙的學生比例大幅下降了。在1996年時近一半的8年級學生嘗試吸煙，而今年只有16%的學生嘗試吸煙。

U.S. Teen Smoking Declines to Record Low in 2012, Study Says

　　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.

　　He said reductions on that scale can translate into the prevention of thousands of premature deaths and tens of thousands of cases of cancer and other serious disease.

　　More than 400,000 Americans are estimated to die prematurely each year as a result of cigarette smoking - the No. 1 cause of preventable U.S. deaths - and most smokers begin their habit as adolescents, experts say.

　　Healthcare advocates hailed Wednesday's findings as evidence that higher cigarette taxes were paying off, combined with federal curbs on youth-oriented tobacco marketing and sales and a sweeping anti-smoking media campaign.

　　The researchers also cited the increase in federal cigarette taxes, raised by 62 cents a pack in 2009, as a likely contributing factor. The findings were part of an annual survey by University of Michigan researchers released by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

　　Smoking rates fell for each of the individual age groups surveyed, most notably among eighth graders - from 6.1 percent in 2011 to 4.9 percent in 2012, the survey found.

　　Longer-term trends showed teen smoking rates dropping by about three-fourths among eighth graders, two-thirds among 10th graders and by half among 12th graders since a peak in the mid-1990s, researchers said.

　　One reason cited by experts is that the proportion of students who have ever tried smoking has declined sharply. Whereas nearly half of all eighth graders had tried cigarettes in 1996, just 16 percent had done so this year. Enditem