Young people and smoking: knowledge and habits of middle and high school students

The present research, carried out by means of a questionnaire distributed to 568 middle- and high-school students in some Marchean towns, aimed to assess the knowledge and attitudes of the young regarding smoking. The data obtained revealed widespread smoking, the tendencies being to an in-creasingly precocious start, a more marked spread of the habit amongst girls, and an apparent increase among children coming from homes where both parents smoke. With regard to their knowledge of the damage to health from the use of tobacco, the majority of those interviewed proved to have a generalized idea (e.g., only about 30% associated smoking with cancers of the respiratory system); moreover, almost none (only 0.9%) had any knowledge of the pro-blem of tabacosis