Effect of a field-based campaign against tobacco use for children in grades six through eight

An aggressive community-supported campaign against tobacco use was practiced for 3 years in Brenham, Tex, during the school years from 1987 through 1989. Physicians, role models, peers, and individuals with tobacco-related illnesses presented data to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders in the test program each year. Compared with students in two nonprogram adjacent school districts, the students in the test program seemed to decrease their desire to use tobacco in any form (smoking or chewing). A model prevention program has been developed that can be put into place in other rural or urban communities.