Cigarette Smoking Among Chicago Youth Dips To All-Time Low

CHICAGO -- Cigarette smoking among Chicago high schoolers reached an all-time low in 2017, city officials announced Monday.

They cited a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that identifies only 6 percent of Chicago high school students who smoked cigarettes last year — a 59 percent decrease among youth since 2011.

"Chicago has made historic progress in our fight to reduce smoking among youth and young adults, but we have more work to do to ensure the next generation is tobacco-free," the study states. "In 2001, one in four high schoolers in Chicago smoked cigarettes. Today that number has fallen to (fewer) than 1 in 16 high school students."

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease and death, according to the CDC, and almost all tobacco use begins during youth and young adulthood.

In 2016, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel raised the minimum legal purchasing age for tobacco from 18 to 21 years old. Immediately following the new law's implementation, the Chicago Department of Public Health's 2016 Healthy Chicago Survey revealed a dramatic decrease in the rate of cigarette and e-cigarette use among residents 18- to 20-year-olds. In 2016, 9.7 percent of residents in that age range reported using cigarettes or e-cigarettes — that's compared to more than 15 percent just one year earlier.

The Chicago Sun-Times cited Health Department spokeswoman Anel Ruiz Monday, who stated that the city has allocated $2 million of e-cigarette tax revenue to be used for four new school-based health centers by 2019.

"These centers, which provide primary care to CPS students and the community, include a center at Steinmetz College Prep, centers in development at Drake Elementary and Chicago Vocational Career Academy, and a center planned for Englewood Community High School," the story said.

The article also references Emanuel's personal ties to curbing youth tobacco use: The frustration of watching his mother struggle with smoking while he was growing up, and his later work alongside then-President Bill Clinton to take on major tobacco companies.

“I set out a goal back in 2011 that we wanted to actually create the first tobacco-free generation," he said, in the report. "And we can see the goal line now for the first time. It’s within reach.”

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