Cigarettes and Tobacco News

Oct 20, 2006 -- HEALTH - They’re starting young. About 45 per cent of Nova Scotia smokers started puffing at age 14 or younger. And 13 per cent were daily smokers by that age.

Those figures, and a plethora of others, were made public yesterday at the Nova Scotia Tobacco Control Summit, as the provincial government tries to better understand who is still lighting up.

When smokers were asked when they started smoking every day, the majority, at 59 per cent, said they started smoking between the ages of 15 and 19. That means that a whopping 72 per cent of smokers started puffing regularly before they were old enough to legally buy cigarettes.

So where are they getting their smokes? Typically, from people they know. About 51 per cent of underage smokers say they’re given or take cigarettes from family members or someone they know, and/or they buy them from a friend or someone they know.

Buying cigarettes is their second option. About 35 per cent of underage smokers buy their cigarettes, mostly from small grocery stores or corner stores, and a much smaller number at supermarkets or gas stations.

These numbers come from a draft report prepared by the Health Department, Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey: 2005 Results for Nova Scotia.

In it, the province details more than just smoking rates, but also looks into smoking cessation, how people are quitting and why, smoking at home, opinions on public smoking, marijuana use and the use of other tobacco products. The report will be finalized by the end of the month.

“We’ve made good strides there. But we have to continue to work because if we stop or even let up with what we’re doing with youth, the smoking rates will go back up,” said Robert Strang.

“We need to stay committed to policies like making school grounds smoke-free, the legislation that’s coming forward in December making all public places smoke-free or to ban point of sale advertising,” Strang said.

On Dec. 1, the province will make legislative changes, which result in what Strang called the “strongest legislation in the country,” that bans smoking in all indoor workplaces, all indoor public places and licensed outdoor patios.

According to a senior provincial government source, Health Minister Barry Barnet will not make a specific announcement to ban point-of-sales advertising today, as many at the conference had hoped.

He will instead likely affirm his support for doing so.