MobileNest

Japanese health officials made a connection between teen phone usage and a drop in the rate of smoking.

There is “a high chance that phone bills are weighing on the money they spend on cigarettes”, said the head of research at the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry and assistant director of the National Institute of Public Health, Kenji Hayashi.

A survey of 103,500 high school students found the following:

• boys age 17 and 18 decreased the smoke rate to 22 percent in 2004, down from 37 percent in 1996 and 2000
• girls reduced the smoke rate below 10 percent, down from 16 percent
• the smoke rate among 12 and 13-year-olds was reduced by a half to 3.2 per cent