North Carolina Teens Are Not Big Fans of Tobacco, Survey Finds

More than three-quarters of middle school and high school students surveyed in North Carolina say smoking should not be allowed at home, indoors at work, or in cars, HealthDay reports. The tobacco-growing state has one of the nation’s lowest cigarette taxes, and only recently banned smoking in most restaurants, bars and hotels.

The results demonstrate that “it’s very clear, that teens and youth want to eliminate smoking in indoor and outdoor places,” said study co-author Leah Ranney of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program.

The study appears in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Preventing Chronic Disease. The researchers note the findings are important since many youth have little control over their exposure to secondhand smoke, which is dependent on the smokers around them, and the degree to which smoke-free policies exist in the places they frequent.

“Advocates for controlling tobacco use should consider ways to capture and leverage youth’s strong support of smoke-free policies in their legislative advocacy efforts,” they wrote.