'Smoking Is an Addiction of Childhood and Not an Adult Choice' the Smoking Ban May Have Marked a Change in Attitudes to the Habit, but Teenage Girls Are Continuing to Embrace Cigarettes in Large Numbers. Health Editor Madeleine Brindley Looks at Why Teenage Girls Smoke

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Byline: Madeleine Brindley

FROM being something that most adults indulged in throughout the 20th century, smoking is increasingly becoming a social taboo. Smokers have been relegated to pavements and street corners following the introduction of the smoking ban almost three years ago and the tobacco industry now faces further restrictions on advertising and where cigarettes can be sold.

There is also some anecdotal evidence to suggest that the non-smoking majority is less willing than ever to put up with the smoking habits of the minority.

But while Wales may slowly be moving towards a significant cultural shift where smoking is no longer socially acceptable - even openly frowned upon - it seems that someone forgot to tell our teenage girls.

Smoking rates among teenagers have, on the whole, been declining in line with rates for adults, but for teenage girls that fall has been stubbornly small.

Smoking among teenage boys fell between 1998 and …