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Two different articles appear below.

Excerpts from A SURVEY DETAILS STUDENT SMOKING

New York Times [02/22/98]

More than a third of high school students who try cigarettes develop a daily smoking habit before they graduate, the Government said today.

In a survey of more than 16,000 students nationwide, nearly 36 percent who had ever smoked said their smoking had escalated to at least a cigarette a day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Nearly 73 percent of the students with a daily habit said they had tried to quit. Of those who tried to quit, 13.5 percent were successful, the agency said.

Seventy percent of students surveyed said they had tried cigarettes at least once. The percentage is probably higher among teen-agers over all because the survey did not include dropouts, Mr. Eriksen said. Previous studies had estimated that 33 percent to 50 percent of people who experiment with cigarettes become regular smokers.

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Excerpts from MANY TEENS TRY, FAIL TO STOP SMOKING

Chicago Tribune [05/22/98]

One in three high school students who try smoking even once develop a daily habit before they graduate, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

"It's a very bad habit. It's so incredibly addictive," Ledford said. "The first thing you notice is you start to want one really bad when you don't have one."

The study shows that many smokers develop a pattern of nicotine addiction and have a desire to quit in their teens, said Michael Eriksen, director of the CDC's Office of Smoking and Health.

"We had thought that this process of experiment, becoming addicted and trying to quit played out over decades," Eriksen said. "What we're finding is that this process really occurs before high school graduation."

Seventy percent of 16,000 students surveyed nationwide said they had smoked at least once, the CDC said. Almost 36 percent of students who had tried cigarettes said their habit escalated to smoking at least once per day.

Nearly 73 percent of daily student smokers said they had tried to quit, but only 13.5 percent successfully stopped.

"The findings underscore the need for Congress to pass comprehensive tobacco legislation this year . . . that will significantly reduce teen tobacco use," said Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.

Previous studies had estimated that 33 percent to 50 percent of people who experiment with cigarettes become regular smokers.

Researchers can show that smoking quickly loses its cool for many teenagers, but they keep puffing because of nicotine addiction, Eriksen said.

"They started to smoke because they want an image, they want to make a statement, they get seduced by the advertising," he said. "But after a few years, they realize it is costly, it is messy, it interferes with performance and it no longer gives them the cachet it gave them when they were 12 to 13 years old."

White students were the most likely to become daily smokers after their first puff, at nearly 42 percent. Almost 15 percent of blacks and 24.5 percent of Hispanics who tried cigarettes eventually smoked daily.

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