SEATTLE (AP) -- A study that gave a failing grade to school-based anti-smoking efforts was helpful but shouldn't make schools give up, state Department of Health officials say.

The $15 million study released this week by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that in 40 state school districts, the efforts did nothing to keep students from smoking. The Health Department says the study, which followed 8,400 children, began 15 years ago and doesn't prove that current campaigns are ineffective. "It's a great study, but it's a study of the past and we're looking at the future," said Tim Church, Health Department communications director. Health Secretary Mary Selecky said the study began at a time when children were bombarded by advertising that encouraged them to smoke. "It's a very different day for Washington state," Selecky said. "It's about a changed culture of tobacco use." Today, anti-smoking campaigns are not just based in the classroom, she said. Between the middle of October and the end of the year, she said, 22,000 anti-smoking radio and television commercials will have aired. One radio commercial compares smoking to inhaling cow farts. A TV commercial shows a thick layer of fat being squeezed from a smoker's aorta. The TV ads air when children are mostly likely to be watching. Other anti-smoking ads appear on billboards, Selecky said. The department has also been sending minors into stores to see if the clerks will sell them cigarettes. In such a changed environment, school-based programs may be more effective, the department said. The department still sees some useful things from the Fred Hutchinson study. It gives officials a good idea of what tactics don't work, Selecky said. It also gives the department something to keep in mind as it looks at smoking prevention plans from school districts around the state, Selecky said. "We cannot afford to invest in something that we know does not work," she said. "But we cannot afford to walk away from kids." The Hutchinson study found that about one-quarter of students who attended special anti-smoking classes smoked daily by grade 12 -- the same rate as students who did not attend such classes.

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