烟草在线据谢比尔镇来源报纸报道编译　　研究人员12月26日称，美国青少年的吸烟率在2012年降至历史最低，吸烟率下降的部分原因可能是受联邦烟草税大幅上涨的驱动。

　　对8年级、10年级和12年级的大约4.5万名学生进行的年度调查结果显示，那些称他们在过去30天内吸过烟的学生总比例仅仅下降了超过一个百分点，降至10.6%。

　　“下降一个百分点听起来可能不算太多，但它表示目前吸烟的青少年数量在一年内减少了大约9%，”该调查的主要调查人员劳埃德·约翰斯顿在一份声明中说道。

　　他表示，下降的比例可转化为能够预防数千个过早死亡及上万例癌症和其它严重的疾病。

　　专家称，预计每年将有超过40万的美国人会因吸烟而过早死亡——吸烟是美国可预防死亡的头号杀手——而且大多数吸烟者是在青少年时期开始吸烟的。

　　卫生保健倡议者欢呼12月26日的调查结果证明了较高的卷烟税是有效的，而且联邦政府对倾向于年轻人的烟草营销和销售的抑制以及全面的反对烟草的媒体宣传也是有效的。

　　研究人员还表示，2009年把每包卷烟的联邦卷烟税提高62美分也是起作用的一个因素。该调查是密歇根大学的研究人员进行的年度调查的一部分，是由美国国家药物滥用研究所发布的。

　　该调查结果显示，接受调查的每个独立年级的吸烟率都下降了，但8年级的吸烟率下降最明显——从2011年的6.1%下降到2012年的4.9%。

　　研究人员称，长期趋势显示，自20世纪90年代中期青少年吸烟率达到最高以来，8年级学生的吸烟率下降了四分之三左右、10年级的下降了三分之二、12年级的下降了一半。

　　专家指出，其中一个原因是曾经尝试吸烟的学生比例大幅下降了。在1996年时近一半的8年级学生尝试吸烟，而今年只有16%的学生尝试吸烟。

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