Cigarette smoking among youth--United States, 1989.

In 1988, an estimated 434,000 persons in the United States died as a result of cigarette smoking. About three fourths of adults who have ever been regular cigarette smokers reported trying their first cigarette before their 18th birthday (National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA], unpublished data), and about half of them had become regular smokers by that time (2; NIDA, unpublished data). This report, based on the Teenage Attitudes and Practices Survey (TAPS), presents the prevalence of self-reported smoking among U.S. adolescents aged 12-18 years during 1989.