Smoking among schoolchildren.

As part of its health education programme, the Irish Cancer Society sponsored studies of the smoking habits of Dublin schoolchildren in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was decided to review the situation a decade later, and accordingly the Health Education Bureau, the Medico-Social Research Board and the Irish Cancer Society funded a survey of smokers among Dublin post-primary schoolchildren in 1981.The prevalance of smoking among schoolchildren is still at a high level, and the main change over the last 10 years has been the fact that girls have almost caught up with the boys. It was hard to evaluate the effect of health education over the decade. Although many of the ;smoking' students wanted to give up smoking the reason was not long-term health. In fact, concentrating on the ;cancer/shorten life' effects of smoking may be counterproductive and anti-smoking campaigns should perhaps stress the immediate benefits of giving up smoking-better breathing, increased ability for sport, saving of money, and so on.