Out of these 60 students 28 were smokers, 21 of these people smoked daily, 3 were smoking twice a week and the other 5 smoked only on the weekend. 17 female students claimed to be smokers with only 11 males being smokers, this agreeing with national statistics which show adolescent girls tend to start up smoking more than males. "In 1998 approximately 400,000 adolescents smoked, comprising of 205,000 females and 194,000 males.""(www.acosh.org). (refer appendix c).
It was shown through the surveys that many students had been pressured by peers to smoke and as a result 10 of those students carried it through to be daily smokers.
One of the questions on the survey was where do you get your cigarettes from as most of these students are not legal to buy them the results were that, 14 got their smokes from friends, 12 from family and 3 claimed to have stolen them. It was clear that the students understood the dangers and effects of smoking.
Television and movies play a major role in youth smoking, in many teenage shows and movies the cool people are seen to be smoking this making adolescents believe that if they too smoke they will also be cool. This is up side for tobacco industry, "The total value of the cigarettes smoked per year by adolescents is around $100 million, of which manufacturers receive approximately $18 million, governments $64 million and retailers $16 million.""(www.acosh.org).
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Evaluation.
The procedural policy of smoking within Morayfield SHS is as follows:.
• On the first count of being caught the student is to proceed to the student support centre, there they will be issued with a 15 minute detention and will have a talk about smoking.
• Upon the second count the student once again proceeds to the student support centre to complete a 15 minute detention. They are then to report to the school nurse (Sue Scriven) who provides counselling and initiates the student to the quit program which consists of filling out worksheets and watching a video.
