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Taiwan Quick Take: Kids trying smoking earlier

The age at which people begin smoking has fallen considerably and one in four junior high school students have tried cigarettes, according to the results of a survey released earlier this week by the Department of Health. The tallies, compiled from 22,339 effective questionnaires from junior high school students, show that 27.04 percent of respondents had tried smoking and around 6.5 percent were habitual smokers. The tallies also show that 38 percent of the children had lit their first cigarette before the age of 10, with 34.4 percent of them doing it at home. The official said the prevalence of smoking among children is due to the aggressive marketing strategies used by tobacco dealers, including having actors smoking in movies and TV shows, which makes young people want to imitate them. The official said that the department would expand anti-tobacco education to include schoolchildren below the age of eight and promote non-smoking campuses to counter the marketing efforts of tobacco dealers.

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