ADA News March 19, 2012 Article page 12:  "SG tobacco report's major conclusions summarized:  Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults, an evidence-based report of the surgeon general, has five major conclusions:  *Cigarette smoking by youth and young adults has immediate adverse health consequences, including addiction, and accelerates the development of chronic diseases across the full life course.  *Prevention efforts must focus on both adolescents and young adults because among adults who become daily smokers, nearly all first use of cigarettes occurs by 18 years of age (88 percent) with 99 percent of first use by 26 years of age.  *Advertising and promotional activities by tobacco companies have been shown to cause the onset and continuation of smoking among adolescents and young adults.  *After years of stead progress, declines in the use of tobacco by youth and young adults have slowed for cigarette smoking and stalled for smokeless tobacco use.  *  Coordinated, multicomponent interventions that combine mass media campaigns, price increases including those that result from tax increases, school-bases policies and programs, and statewide or community-wide changes in smoke-free policies and norms are effective in reducing the initiation, prevalence and intensity of smoking among youth and young adults.
This report of the surgeon general was prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Office on Smoking and Health."