Male high school juniors’ smoking rate highest

By Kang Shin-who

Staff reporter

Korean second grade high school boys marked the highest rate of smokers among students.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare in cooperation with the National Statistics Office announced Sunday smoking data by age, ahead of “World No Smoking Day,” which falls on May 31.

According to the statistics, collected in 2008, the smoking rate for male high school second graders was 21 percent. Third graders at high schools marked 17.8 percent and first graders stood at 15.9 percent.

In comparison, the average smoking rate of Korean adults stood at 47.7 percent. The numbers of high school students who smoke peaked in 1997 at 35.3 percent and declined to 16.2 percent in 2007, but started to increase again from 2008.

In the case of high school girls, first graders marked 3.3 percent, second graders, 4.5 percent and third graders 2.6 percent.