Mobile Phones Reduce Teen Smoking

from the there-are-conclusions-then-there-are-conclusions dept

Japanese teenagers are spending so much of their money on mobile-phone bills that they can't afford to smoke, a new government report says. High school students there typically get between $55 and $65 allowance per month, and spend between $36 and $55 on their phones, leading researchers to believe there's a correlation between the rising bills and dropping smoking rates. A report three years ago also said mobile phones were causing kids to smoke less, not just because of money, but because it gave them something to do with their hands and were "smart, chic and adult." It's hard to quantify the impact of mobile phones on smoking, especially given the changing social attitudes towards it, but perhaps the handset has replaced the cigarette as the sign of cool for kids.

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