Examines the extent to which women's magazines with a strong interest in health covered various health hazards associated with smoking. Finds that six major women's magazines have virtually no coverage of smoking and cancer. Suggests that self-censorship may have helped determine editorial content more than pressure from tobacco companies. (RS)

Tobacco control policies and incidence of smoking were examined for 71 tribally controlled public sites, including tribal offices and buildings, work sites, health clinics, schools, and urban Indian centers. About two-thirds of sites had written tobacco policies; observations of indoor smoking were modestly related to the leniency or absence of…

Administered a survey testing knowledge regarding alcohol and tobacco to 702 randomly selected undergraduate students. Reports that the respondents had a greater grasp of the biological information of alcohol than they did of tobacco. (JRH)

Presents results of a descriptive study of lung cancer death rates compared to county levels of radon in Washington State. Age-specific death rates were computed for white female smokers according to radon exposure. A significant lung cancer excess was found in lowest radon counties. No significant difference was found between the proportion of…

Randomly assigned smokers (n=126) to six-session smoking cessation treatments consisting of skills training or support counseling strategies and nicotine gum or rapid smoking nicotine exposure strategies. Counseling and nicotine strategies were completely crossed; all four combinations resulted in equivalent one-year abstinence rates. Treatments…

Collected data on smoking attitudes and behaviors via interviews of representative sample of city residents, using four indicators of social class position. Regardless of indicator used, few attitudinal or behavioral differences between social classes were found. Results suggest that multifaceted approach to smoking prevention in Canada has…

Developed a simulation model to predict the effects of policies for reducing adolescent smoking initiation. The model projected numbers of smokers, never smokers, and ex-smokers by age, sex, and race/ethnicity and effects of reductions in youth initiation. Results predicted that even if tobacco policies eliminated youth initiation, the number of…

Surveyed college health center directors about policies addressing smoking and availability of smoking cessation programs. Though 85 percent considered students' smoking a problem, only 81 percent of colleges prohibited smoking in all public areas, and only 27 percent banned smoking in all indoor areas. Though over half of the schools offered…

To examine changes in cigarette smoking among high school students from 1991-99, researchers analyzed data from the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Results indicate that students' current smoking increased significantly, from 27.5 percent to 34.8 percent during that time. Results also suggest that later in the decade, current smoking may have…

Examined occupational differences in social influences supporting smoking cessation and their relationships to intentions and self-efficacy to quit and to quitting. Data collected from smokers at 44 worksites indicated that differing social environments contributed to differences by occupational category in smoking prevalence and smoking…

Examined factors related to young adults providing tobacco to minors. Surveys of college students indicated that 33.2 percent were asked to provide tobacco to minors, and 30.8 percent complied. Males were more likely to be approached and provide tobacco than were females. Convenience stores and gas stations were the most popular locations.…

Cigarette smoking is a leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Many smokers initiate this dangerous behavior during adolescence. This report describes a contingency management intervention designed to initate and maintain a period of abstinence from cigarettes by adolescent smokers. Results suggest that the intervention was…

The authors report on the development and assessment of an instrument to measure baseline campus cigarette use and outcomes from prevention programs, including those using a social norms approach combined with environmental policy change. They administered the 37-item College Tobacco Survey (CTS) to a convenience sample of 1,279 college students…

The prevalence of college students' tobacco use is widely recognized, but successful cessation and relapse-prevention programs for these smokers have drawn little attention. The authors, who explored the feasibility of training peers to lead cessation and relapse-prevention programs for undergraduates, found a quit rate of 88.2%, suggesting that…

Smoking initiation typically occurs in adolescence and increases over time into emerging adulthood. Thus adolescence and emerging adulthood compose a critical time period for prevention and intervention efforts. To inform these efforts, this study used latent growth mixture modeling to identify 6 smoking trajectories from ages 13 to 23 among 5,914…