With one in four Missouri adults identifying as a smoker, the state has one of the highest smoking rates in the country. On Jan. 2, Mehlville restaurants will become smoke free thanks to a county-wide smoking ban taking effect that day.

The ban came after Kathleen Sebellius, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, met with county health officials in June 2010 to review their plans for the nearly $8 million federal grant it received. The grant paid for nine new health department employees who would implement a new program called "Changing Tobacco Norms in St. Louis County."

The program is aimed at keeping young people from starting to smoke, reducing exposure to secondhand smoke for county residents and helping smokers who want to quit.

As planned, the St. Louis County Department of Health has started targeting schools with their anti-tobacco marketing efforts. Students across the county were invited to take part in a smoking survey, and many obliged, including 76 students at Mehlville High School. According to Barry Freedman, project manager for the health department's Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) program, the results won't be broken down by school for public information.

"They go to a different firm and they aggregate all the answers from all of the high schools involved," Freedman said. "The results will be available sometime in the spring, but we won't have individual results—it will be all schools combined."

Freedman said it has to be that way to protect the anonymity of the students involved. The survey was done by St. Louis University researchers, who got permission from Mehlville High School's administration to give the survey.

Freedman noted that while the department has the results of a baseline study of St. Louis County high schools, it's still in draft form and not ready to be released to the public. When released, the study will be broken down by school, so there will be individual results for Mehlville schools available.

The dangers of smoking are well-known to most adults, but many teens aren't aware of the grave consequences that can come from picking up their first cigarette.

For the last three decades, the U.S. Surgeon General's office has released annual reports on the dangers of smoking— but for the first time, this year's report focused more on emphasizing the dangers of secondhand smoke along with new information on serious health risks from first-time smoking.

In past years, the reports focused more on the long-term health risks associated with smoking. The new report devotes hundreds of pages to the more immediate risks of tobacco use, such as ones faced by those with allergy or respiratory problems.

As far as Freedman is concerned, smoking is a public health issue.

"The science is clear that smoking and using tobacco products is only going to harm one's health," he said. "In the case of smoking cigarettes, it's also exposing others to the harmful effects of smoke, so there's really no positive reason at all for anyone to smoke."

Freedman said that tobacco companies spend shockingly large amounts of money on marketing to young people because they know they have a better chance of convincing a young person to pick up that first cigarette than someone who has made it to adulthood without smoking. Statistically, he's right on the money, since adults are less likely to become smokers if they didn't smoke as teens. 

"It's critically important that we do everything we can as a society to prevent young people from smoking," Freedman added. "There are people who will become addicted after just one cigarette—and that's exactly what the tobacco companies want."