The findings of the study, published in the paper Factors Influencing Reductions in Smoking Among Australian Adolescents in Public Health Research and Practice, report the number of NSW adolescents who smoke has dropped to 6.7 per cent.

Manager of Cancer Prevention Anita Dessaix said new tobacco control measures that have been implemented, including tax increases, smoke free environments, plain packaging laws and controls on the supply of tobacco to minors, have contributed to the low figure.

“It is clear that this multi-pronged approach to tobacco control is working,” Ms Dessaix said.  

“Before the launch of the National Tobacco Campaign in 1997, almost one-in-four adolescents were current smokers; we are now at a stage where in a class of 30 students you would more likely find only a couple of smokers.”

In Bathurst, Silva’s Newsagency manager Trevor Kingham said his store, which is an outlet for purchasing tobacco, has seen fewer young people trying to purchase cigarettes in recent years.

“We haven’t seen it for quite some time. I couldn’t put a figure on it, but we haven’t seen anyone young-ish come in for quite some time,” he said.

Mr Kingham agrees the new control measures have certainly contributed to the reduction, with the inclusion of graphic images on packaging and enforcing age limits being the biggest factors.

“Our policy is no ID, no sale – and if more newsagencies had that I think we’d see even less,” he said. “I don’t think plain packaging itself has had an impact; I think it is the images on the packets having a greater impact.”