Parents and public health experts can celebrate the news that smoking is on the decline. But they need to rethink the prevention message in light of the Indiana Prevention Resource Center’s annual survey results. The survey represents the responses of 9

Best of the news is the finding that cigarette smoking for all grades is nearly half its rate at the peak, in the mid-1990s. "I think the credit truly goes to the teens of Indiana," said Marie Washington, executive director of Smokefree Allen County. "They have been empowered by the Voice network to say that they are no longer willing to be victims." Voice is a statewide youth-led tobacco-control movement paid for with money from the national tobacco settlement. Washington acknowledged that the message is muddled on smokeless tobacco, use of which increases oral cancer risk by 50 times. "There’s still a perception that it is a safe alternative," she said. Even more deadly is the use of inhalants, the use of which has increased for the third consecutive year. Prevention efforts are incomplete without information on the dangers of "huffing" common household products to achieve a high.

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