2 Mar 2012

Smoking now uncool among teens

6:28 am on 2 March 2012

A smoking survey of year 10 students has found that smoking is now too expensive and too uncool for many teens.

The ASH lobby group asked half of all 14 and 15-year-olds about their views on smoking in 2010/2011.

ASH says the survey shows that smoking among that age group is at its lowest since it began the survey in 1999, with 70% never smoking compared to 32% in 1999.

Part of that decline is due to a rise of 30% in the tax on cigarettes over the last 18 months, which has made them too expensive for many teens.