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Bay area leads in teen smokingBy JULIE HAUSERMAN and SHELBY OPPEL © St. Petersburg Times, published April 23, 1998 A new statewide survey by the Florida Department of Health shows that middle and high school students in Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough and Manatee counties are more likely to smoke than teens in any other part of Florida. Experts have no idea why. The state sent anonymous questionnaires randomly to 23,000 Florida students this year. Forty-four percent of Tampa Bay high school students admitted they had used a tobacco product -- smokeless tobacco, cigars or cigarettes -- at least once in the previous 30 days. That's 9 percentage points above the statewide average. In Tampa Bay middle schools, more than 28 percent of the students said they had used tobacco at least once in the past month, 4 percentage points above the state average. Cigar smoking, which has become trendy among adults, is apparently cool in school. Nearly 17 percent of middle school students and a quarter of high school students in the bay area admitted lighting up a cigar at least once in 30 days. The survey indicates the habit intensifies as teens move through school. In Tampa Bay middle schools, almost 8 percent of students surveyed were frequent smokers. By high school, the proportion jumped to more than 20 percent. Citrus and Hernando counties were counted with the North Central region, where 24.5 percent of middle school students reported using tobacco, compared with 35.5 percent of high school students. Statewide, tobacco use was as high among eighth-graders as it was among high school students. Boys use tobacco more than girls, and white students are much more likely to smoke than Hispanics or African-Americans. Among high school students, white girls are 10 times more likely to be frequent smokers than African-American girls. "These numbers show the manipulation that tobacco advertising certainly has worked on our kids," Gov. Lawton Chiles said Wednesday as he unveiled Florida's first statewide look at teen smoking. But 16-year-old Jessica Emmett, a junior at Pinellas Park High School, tells a different story. Jessica started smoking in eighth grade, mainly because her best friend was doing it. She was surprised to hear that bay area teens are more likely to smoke than those in other parts of Florida. Then again, the school resource officers who conduct monthly cigarette sweeps at Pinellas Park High never come up empty-handed, she said. "They come in with dogs (that) sniff your pocketbooks and bookbags. They come out with bags full" of cigarettes, she said. Anti-smoking campaigns, whether waged by adults or teens, won't stop kids from smoking, Jessica said. They will keep smoking simply because adults tell them not to, because their friends do it, and because they think they will never die, she said. Now, Jessica is vowing to quit. If she makes it until Friday, she will have gone one week without a cigarette. Except for the drag she had Tuesday. And the Black and Mild cigars she smokes to tame her craving. But that's nothing compared to her four-year, pack-a-day cigarette habit that she recently gave up because her boyfriend demanded it. Now when she's stressed out, she bites down on the inside of her cheeks. Hard. "My boyfriend -- he hates it. His dad died from doing it and I told him I'd quit for him. I really love him," she said. With state coffers fat from Florida's multibillion-dollar settlement with tobacco companies, officials are waging an assault on teen smoking. The statewide survey is one piece of the effort. "We needed a reliable baseline so we can see how our efforts are doing," said Carlea Bauman, spokeswoman for the Florida Tobacco Pilot Project. J'Aime Conrod said the results for the Tampa Bay area did not surprise her. "The kids I'm working with are really hard-core smokers," said Conrod, who has run a smoking cessation program for Pinellas students for two years. "They smoke more and they start early." She works with students in Pinellas, Manatee and Sarasota counties who have been caught smoking in school for the first time. Generally, Conrod sees young teens, ages 13 to 16. Based on interviews and surveys with students, Conrod has concluded that the Pinellas student smokers buy their own cigarettes. "That's one thing to look at: the access," Conrod said. "There are lots of gas stations in Pinellas County that sell cigarettes to kids." State law prohibits anyone under 18 from buying cigarettes. A first offense nets a $25 fine, and a third offense can cost a teen that most critical emblem of freedom: a driver's license. The state is also providing training for teachers and teens to dissuade teen smokers. And teens are developing a print and television advertising campaign to paint smoking as very uncool. "The ads are edgy and a little rebellious," said Jenny Lee, a Tallahassee high school student who is spokeswoman for the teen tobacco campaign. "If anyone can help us turn back teen smoking, we know it is teens." Andrea Martin and Chris Splendore, sophomores at Seminole High School, don't smoke. They tried it, but didn't see the point. They scoff at the idea that an anti-smoking campaign led by teens could be effective. "Kids don't care what they hear. If somebody said, "Don't do it,' they'll just laugh at them," said Chris, 15. "People think teen smoking comes from the ads. It doesn't. If kids see a Camel billboard, it just makes them remember they need to buy a pack." Andrea, 16, said: "Kids do it because they think they look cool. . . . And nobody wants to admit it." The statistics on bay area teen smoking make sense, they said. "I think it's true. It's because there's nothing to do. There's no skate parks, and they're always banning something," Chris said. "There's also a lot of stupid people here, too," Andrea said.
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ALLAHASSEE -- In Florida's battle against teen smoking, Tampa Bay is the hot zone.
