Many Korean Teens Start Smoking at 12

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said on August 6 that Korean teenagers start smoking at 12. The ministry conducted a survey on 8,000 middle and high school students nationwide. The average starting age was 15 years old in 1998, but it fell to 12.5 in 2006. According to the ministry, the smoking rate had increased especially big among teenage girls. As a matter of fact, it doubled that of adult females last year.

The ministry also found out that most teenagers are eating less fruit, vegetables and drinking less milk than the government standard, while eating too much fast food that can harm their health by breaking nutritional balance. Also, more than 20 percent of the respondents skip breakfast more than five times a week. As the result of unbalanced nutrition, the ratio of teenager obesity had doubled in seven years.