ANN ARBOR, Mich. The U.S. had the second lowest proportion of students who used tobacco and alcohol compared to their counterparts in 36 European countries, a new report indicates.

The results originate from coordinated school surveys about substance use from more than 100,000 students in some of the largest countries in Europe like Germany, France and Italy, as well as many smaller ones from both Eastern and Western Europe.

Because the methods and measures are largely modeled after the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future surveys in this country, comparisons are possible between the U.S. and European results. The 15 and 16 year old students, who were drawn in nationally representative samples in almost all of the 36 countries, were surveyed last spring. American 10th graders in the 2011 Monitoring the Future studies are of the same age, so comparisons are possible.

The differences found between adolescent behaviors in the U.S. and Europe are dramatic, according to Lloyd Johnston, the principal investigator of the American surveys.

About 27 percent of American students drank alcohol during the 30 days prior to the survey. Only Iceland was lower at 17 percent, and the average rate in the 36 European countries was 57 percent, more than twice the rate in the U.S.

The proportion of American students smoking cigarettes in the month prior to the survey was 12 percent again the second lowest in the rankings and again only Iceland had a lower rate at 10 percent. For all European countries the average proportion smoking was 28 percent, more than twice the rate in the U.S.

«One of the reasons that smoking and drinking rates among adolescents are so much lower here than in Europe is that both behaviors have been declining and have reached historically low levels in the U.S. over the 37 year life of the Monitoring the Future study,» Johnston said. «But even in the earlier years of the European surveys, drinking and smoking by American adolescents was quite low by comparison.

«Use of illicit drugs is quite a different matter.»

The U.S. students tend to have among the highest rates of use of all of the countries. At 18 percent, the U.S. ranks third of 37 countries on the proportion of students using marijuana or hashish in the prior 30 days. Only France and Monaco had higher rates at 24 percent and 21 percent, respectively. The average across all the European countries was 7 percent, or less than half the rate in the U.S.

American students reported the highest level of marijuana availability of all the countries and the lowest proportion of students associating great risk with its use factors that may help to explain their relatively high rates of use here, according to Johnston.

Clearly the U.S. has attained relatively low rates of use for cigarettes and alcohol, though not as low as we would like,» Johnston said. «But the level of illicit drug use by adolescents is still exceptional here.»

The U.S. ranks first in the proportion of students using any illicit drug other than marijuana in their lifetime (16 percent compared to an average of 6 percent in Europe) and using hallucinogens like LSD in their lifetime (6 percent vs. 2 percent in Europe). It also ranks first in the proportion reporting ecstasy use in their lifetime (7 percent vs. 3 percent in Europe), despite a sharp drop in their ecstasy use over the previous decade. American students have the highest the proportion reporting lifetime use of amphetamines (9 percent), a rate that is three times the average in Europe (3 percent). Ecstasy was seen as more available in the U.S. than in any other country.

For some drugs, however, the lifetime prevalence rate in the U.S. was just about the average for the European countries, including inhalants (10 percent), cocaine (3 percent), crack (2 percent), heroin (1 percent) and anabolic steroids (1 percent).

«Clearly the U.S. has attained relatively low rates of use for cigarettes and alcohol, though not as low as we would like,» Johnston said. «But the level of illicit drug use by adolescents is still exceptional here.»

This was the fifth coordinated data collection in Europe as part of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, the first being held in 1995 with 26 countries participating. The research plan this time was for each country to generate a representative national sample of 15 and 16 year olds with at least 2,400 students being surveyed. All samples were nationally representative, except those in Germany, Russia, Flanders (the Dutch part of Belgium) and Bosnia Herzegovina. In each of these cases a sub national representative sample was surveyed, such as Moscow in the case of Russia.

The European survey group was led by Swedish sociologist Bjorn Hibbell, who has worked in the substance abuse field for many years. The American survey is led by social psychologist Lloyd Johnston, who has served as principal investigator of Monitoring the Future since its inception 37 years ago. MTF, which is conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research and is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, had a sample of 15,400 10th grade students in 126 high schools in the 2011 survey. Students completed confidential, self administered questionnaires right in their classrooms in both the American and European surveys.

Related links

• Full European report
• Monitoring the Future report (PDF)
• Marijuana use continues to rise among U.S. teens, while alcohol use hits historic lows
• Decline in teen smoking resumes in 2011

By Jared Wadley

University of Michigan News Service

Epha: ‘public health must be at heart of eu regulation of e-cigarettes’ : eu reporter

EU Reporter Correspondent December 4, 2013 0 Comments

On 3 December, ahead of the Trialogue meeting between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) issued its briefing document on the regulation of Nicotine Containing Products (NCPs) in the EU, including e cigarettes. In this document, EPHA recommends a set of principles for EU wide NCP legislation, including important requirements for protecting public health.

As currently evidence on the health impacts of NCPs such as e cigarettes is lacking, we urge the Trialogue to adopt the precautionary principle to shape regulation of NCPs. Without a robust regulatory framework in place in the EU, e cigarettes are now hanging in a legal limbo. It is essential that this emerging range of products is urgently regulated to safeguard people s health, said EPHA Secretary General Monika Kosi ska. To achieve this, Brussels has to make sure that strict rules on advertising and sponsorship as well as market surveillance and monitoring are the corner stones of new legislation, whilst ensuring that the products are accessible to existing smokers.

As the EPHA briefing states, lack of strict regulation of NCPs, or maintaining long transitional periods which is equivalent to maintaining the status quo, has the potential danger to drive market developments that are detrimental to public health.

Although high quality NCPs have the potential to help smokers who are not otherwise ready or able to quit smoking, NCPs must not become a gateway to cigarettes, especially for young people, and must not re normalise smoking. The future legal framework must ensure that accessibility to NCPs for existing smokers is not hindered while ensuring that they are unappealing and inaccessible to minors.

Strict marketing limits similar to tobacco and medicine marketing rules are essential so that NCPs do not promote smoking behaviour either in a direct or indirect way, and appropriate measures put in place to allow a regulatory response to the future and fast development of this market, said Cornel Radu Loghin of the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (ENSP).

«We have long argued for harm reduction in tobacco policy and for radical reform of nicotine regulation to enable effective alternative nicotine products to replace smoking. Regulation is needed to ensure appropriate standards of quality and safety, and to protect against market abuse arising from unscrupulous commercial interests. We therefore support proportionate regulation that enables smokers to access affordable nicotine replacement products as easily as possible while ensuring purity, safety and responsible marketing,» said Professor John Britton CBE, Royal College of Physicans (RCP).

Given the relative short market presence of some NCPs, in particular e cigarettes, regulation on NCPs will be based on incomplete evidence on the long term health consequences of their use. Appropriate monitoring and impact assessment mechanisms, including surveys and data on the health risks, benefits and unintended consequences of the use of NCPs, should be an essential part of the EU regulation on these products, stressed Deborah Arnott of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). The Commission must be empowered to adopt new legislation in order to maintain a high level of human health protection in this fast changing field,» concluded Luk Joossens of the Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL).

• More information

1. The future legislation of nicotine containing products (NCPs), including e cigarettes, is part of the ongoing discussion on the revision of Tobacco Products Directive (TPD).
2. EPHA Briefing Regulation of Nicotine Containing Products (NCPs) including electronic cigarettes

1. A briefing from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) on electronic cigarettes is available here. Further information on the use electronic cigarettes in the UK is available here.

Tags ASH, Association of European Cancer Leagues, Deborah Arnott of Action on Smoking and Health, ECL, EPHA, European Public Health Alliance, featured, full image, NCPs, Nicotine Containing Products

Category Cigarettes, Electronic cigarettes, EU, Frontpage, Health