Comments about ‘In our opinion: Smoking is no longer cool; campaigns still have work to do’

Smokers Are Still High School's 'Cool Kids,' Study Finds
Power of peer approval outweighs decades of public health education among teens

Peer pressure continues to prompt high school students to light up, new research suggests, because popular teens tend to smoke and they induce others to take up the habit in an effort to fit in and be liked.

"Popularity is a strong predictor of smoking," said study author Thomas Valente, a professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. "We haven't done enough to make it cool not to smoke."

smoking hasn't been cool for 30 years