Fewer teens are smoking than in 90s, report says

NEW YORK Smoking rates among teenagers declined in 2008 to their lowest level since the early 1990s, according to a survey.

Researchers at the University of Michigan found that 12.6 percent of high school students this year reported smoking a cigarette in the last month; last year, it was 13.6 percent. The results were based on a national annual survey of 45,000 students in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades at 400 schools. The survey asks students if they have smoked within the last 30 days.

The survey also found that teenagers’ attitudes toward smoking have turned sharply negative, with more than 80 percent expressing disapproval.