Study suggests cool kids can help others avoid smoking

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The results were significant. Students in the peer selection group were 23 percent less likely to start smoking after one year and 15 percent less likely after two years than young people in schools with traditional cessation programmes.

This would translate into a potential reduction of 43,000 14- to 15-year olds who take up smoking each year, Campbell said in a telephone interview.

Studies also show the damage done by smoking takes decades to accumulate, so people who start young have more health risks later.

(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Maggie Fox and Mary Gabriel)

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