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80 percent of female and teenage smokers go to the subway station bathroom to smoke. Most of the teenagers who smoke buy cigarettes from the store or through the Internet and some even use their family member¡¯s ID card, showing that the adult certification that some vending machines have introduced is not effective in hindering teenagers from buying cigarettes.
According to the survey conducted Monday by the Korea Antismoking Research Institute on 1,753 respondents who were on the Busan subway, of the 523 teenagers (middle school and high school students) 27.9 percent (146 people) smoked and among females (ages 19~30, 446 people), the smoking rate was 22.9 percent. Among adult male (784 people), the smoking rate was 61.4 percent.
The percentage of the young female smoking rate was almost four times the general female smoking rate (5.9 percent), and more than 30 percent of them have been smoking since their early school years. 77.5 percent of the female smokers responded that they use the bathroom as their smoking place. Only 54.1 percent of the male smokers answered that they smoke in the subway bathroom. Choi Chang-mok, the director of the Korea Antismoking Research Institute, said, ¡°When female and teenage smokers feel the need to smoke, they seem to find a reclusive place where others cannot spot them.
54.1 percent of teenage smokers answered that they buy cigarettes from stores, and 17.8 percent from the Internet, 11 percent from vending machines, 7.5 percent from friends and acquaintances, 6.2 percent from parents, and 3.4 percent said they bought individual cigarettes instead of buying whole packs.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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