Abstract
In 1994, a survey on youth smoking and health in Hong Kong showed that 29% of junior secondary-school students (mostly aged 12–15 years) had ever smoked cigarettes. More than half had smoked their first cigarette when they were in primary school or before, i. e. at the age of ≤ 11 years., and about 3% had smoked their first cigarette when they were ≤ 6 years old (Lam et al., 1994). A study in Hong Kong showed that about 6% of children in primary class 3 and about 19% of those in class 6 had ever smoked (Hedley et al., 1993). These results clearly demonstrate that the problem of smoking among youth begins before primary school and increases during primary schooling. The study also showed that 95% of the children in primary classes 3 and 4 recognized the Marlboro name and the Salem logo as belonging to tobacco products, from a choice of various consumer products including food, cigarettes and drinks (Peter et al., 1995). The results show that primary school students in Hong Kong are aware of the smoking issue.
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References
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Chung, S.F. et al. (2000). Do parents and children know each other’s smoking experience and attitudes towards children’s smoking?. In: Lu, R., Mackay, J., Niu, S., Peto, R. (eds) Tobacco: The Growing Epidemic. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0769-9_131
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0769-9_131
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