Nearly 13 percent of middle-school students smoke tobacco in any given month, according to the 1999 National Youth Tobacco Survey, conducted by the American Legacy Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control. Rates were higher among blacks (14 percent) and Hispanics (15 percent). While traditional cigarettes dominate – 28 percent of high schoolers say they’ve puffed in the past month – new cigs, like sweet-smelling bidis, are gaining in popularity. Five percent of high school kids and six percent of black students smoke a bidi in a given month.
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