Teenage Smokers from 1997 to 2007 Cigarette smoking during childhood and adolescence produces significant health problems among young people, including an increase in the number and severity of respiratory illnesses, decreased physical fitness and potential effects on the rate of lung growth and maximum lung function. Every day, almost 3,900 children under 18 years of age try their first cigarette, and more than 950 of them will become new, regular daily smokers. Half of them will ultimately die from their habit. People who begin smoking at an early age are more likely to develop a severe addiction to nicotine than those who start at a later age. Of adolescents who have smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime, most of them report that they would like to quit, but are not able to do so. Most importantly, this is when an addiction to smoking takes hold which often persists into and sometimes throughout adulthood. If current tobacco use persists, a high number of current child smokers will eventually die prematurely from a smoking-related disease.
However, according to the New York Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the teenage smoking rates have dropped to 8.5% in 2007 from about 17.6% in 2001 and 23% in 1997. Using the given information, we can look at the probability of at least one teen in a group of ten, were smoking each year.
Table & Histogram: Probability of NYC Teenagers Smoking Trend Year | Rate | Cumulative Binomial Probability | | 2007 | 0.085 | 0.382127922 | | 2001 | 0.176 | 0.308217698 | | 1997 | 0.23 | 0.218848897 | |

The table shows a steady decrease totaling 14.5% from 1997 to 2007 and as seen in the histogram there is a positive trend line showing a decrease in the teenage smokers’ trend as well. This is believe to be because of the continuing factual information given out to educate our youth, increase in cigarette tax,