The latest survey from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) has found that the number of young smokers in New Zealand has declined significantly in the last 10 years. The survey is being conducted, since 1999.

It showed that currently only 5.6% of students aged 14 to 15 (year 10) smoked every day, compared to 15.6%, when the survey was started in the year 1999.

It also confirmed that almost 64% of the students did not experiment with smoking compared to 31.6% students in 1999.

Some feel that the number of people giving up smoking has been encouraged by the news that the Government will be increasing the prices of tobacco products.

Many people are also using the services of the help-group Quitline that encourages them to give up smoking and creates awareness about the harmful impact of smoking. Almost 4,000 people register for its services on an average per month, but nearly 8,000 people registered for its services in the month of May.

In the survey, almost 27,000 teenagers participated and the number of teenagers, who are smoking, has dropped by almost 10% in the last decade.

Health experts are very happy that almost all the population groups have reported a decline in the smoking rates.

But health experts are worried, since more girls are smoking regularly as compared to boys. The smoking rate in Maori girls has also reached 17.9% compared to 36.2% in the year 1999.