‘Maha has fewer teen smokers aged 13-15 than others'

The new Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) 4 found fewer teenagers in the 13-15 age group smoked in Maharashtra as compared to other states, but it also found that half of them bought tobacco products from stores banned from selling to the underaged population.

Mumbai: The GYTS-4 survey, which was released at Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, by state health minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday, showed 5.1% of the 3,765 school students surveyed in Maharashtra smoked or used smokeless tobacco.

This number is less than the national average of 8.5%; in some north-eastern states such as Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, 58% of the surveyed children in the 13-15 age group currently used tobacco.

Also, the overall tobacco habit in this age group has dropped by 42% in the past decade, said R Nagarajan from the Deonar-based International Institute of Population Studies, which conducted the survey.