Mobile bills put teenagers out of puff

A silver lining has been found in the mobile phone addiction of Japanese teenagers: they are so broke after coughing up the money to pay their phone bills, they can't afford to smoke, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

"The connection has been made by health officials in Japan who yesterday announced an unprecedented drop in the rate of smoking among teenagers.

here is "a high chance phone bills are weighing on the money they spend on cigarettes", said Kenji Hayashi, the head of research at the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry. A survey of 103,500 high school students found the rate of smoking among boys aged 17 and 18 had fallen to 22 per cent last year compared with 37 per cent in two earlier surveys in 1996 and 2000.

Among girls the rate fell from 16 per cent to under 10 per cent. The rate among those aged 12 and 13 halved and is now down to 3.2 per cent, the survey found." [via Techdirt]

Related:

-- Young Kiwis smoke less after txt

-- Cigarettes and Cell Phones

-- Young Cell Phones the Newest Teen Addiction

emily | 7:41 AM | Random Stats |
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