Projected smoking-related deaths among youth--United States.

On August 23, 1996, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a regulation restricting the sale and distribution of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to children and teenagers to reduce the number of youth who use these products and to reduce the life-threatening consequences associated with tobacco use. Despite widespread efforts to educate U.S. youths about the health consequences associated with smoking, the prevalence of smoking among this group has been increasing since 1992. To assess the need for continued public health efforts to prevent nicotine addiction, CDC used a model including data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to project the future impact of smoking on the health of children and teenagers. This report presents the findings of the analysis, which indicate that, if current tobacco-use patterns persist, an estimated 5 million persons who were aged 0-17 years in 1995 will die prematurely from a smoking-related illness.