Jump to full article: Kitchener-Waterloo (ONT) Record (ca), 2009-05-29
Author: Johanna Weidner RECORD STAFF
Intro: Youth smoking seems like a problem Canada has addressed. Minors can't legally buy cigarettes in stores and displays are banned.
Yet, after a decade-long decline in youth smoking, the rate has flatlined.
One in five Canadian adolescents report having tried smoking in a national survey run by a University of Waterloo researcher.
"We can't forget that the tobacco industry is a formidable enemy," said Steve Manske, a scientist with UW's Centre for Behavioural Research and Program Evaluation.
"They have very effective ways of continuing to make their product seem desirable."
Manske's latest data, from a Health Canada-sponsored survey of Grade 6 to 12 students, shows 21 per cent had tried smoking in 2006-07. Among students in Grade 10 to 12, that number is even higher -- 48 per cent.
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