BOSTON (AP) – Fewer high school students are lighting up cigarettes.
A new state study finds that the rate of high school smoking dipped from more than 20 percent in 2005 to under 18 percent in 2007.
Since 1995, the rate of teen smoking statewide has been cut in half.
The study by the departments of education and public health found that fewer young people are smoking before age 13, fewer are experimenting with cigarettes and fewer middle school students are smoking.
The decline comes as the state has stepped up funding for the anti-tobacco programs and cracked down on cigarettes sales to children.
The study also found that students who live with smokers are more than twice as likely to smoke than those in non-smoking households.
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