By Dave Thompson
Bismarck, ND – A state Health Department official says youth smoking rates are falling in North Dakota.
But Kathleen Mangskau says there's still a lot of work left to be done.
Mangskau told the Legislature's interim Budget Committee on Health Care that 30 percent of North Dakota's high school students are smokers. Four years ago, 41 percent of students smoked. The percentage of students using smokeless tobacco has dropped from 15 percent to 10 percent during the same time.
Mangskau attributes some of the decline to anti-smoking television ads. She also says schools are doing a lot with anti-tobacco efforts. Mangskau says many schools have become "tobacco-free" zones...which is becoming more important.
"A national report indicates that in schools where smoking is not tolerated on school grounds, 73% report that their schools are drug free," Mangskau told the committee. "So this has implications far beyond tobacco use."
But Mangskow says there are still a large number of youth tobacco users in North Dakota -- and that has to change. She also told the committee that smoking rates are growing among the 18-to-24 year old college age crowd. And she says that's because tobacco companies are targeting that crowd.
"Now they're focusing on 'the legal age' -- and that's a new challenge," said Mangskau. And she says that means that health officials are re-thinking their anti-smoking efforts, to put more of them toward the young adult.