Despite education campaigns about the health hazards associated with smoking and the use of smokeless tobacco, teenage use of tobacco products has reached epidemic proportions. Recent studies indicate that adolescent smoking is on the rise, and that children are beginning to smoke at progressively earlier ages. “Nearly 3,000 young people start smoking each day,” accounting for more than one million new smokers each year. In addition, ninety percent of all new smokers are under the age of eighteen.
Although young people are generally aware of the serious, long-term health risks associated with tobacco use, studies suggest that those who smoke do not usually view those risks as applying to them personally. Furthermore, evidence shows that young people who begin to smoke know about the addictive properties of nicotine, but do not believe that they will become addicted. For these reasons, in August 1995, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed strict regulations aimed at reducing the number of children and adolescents who smoke. Several of these provisions target cigarette advertisements aimed at minors.