Problem/Objective: Young adulthood represents a prime opportunity to intervene in smoking behavior, thereby halting the transformation of a casual habit into an established one. However, there is a particular population, young adults ages 18-24, who are difficult to track or target. To date, very few published reports have examined smoking frequency and cessation among this age group who are not in college.

Methods: Data from various sources were gathered to provide a more complete picture of tobacco use and cessation attempts among this hard to reach population. Data sources include: the Florida Youth Tobacco Survey (FYTS), the Florida Adult Tobacco Survey (FLATS), and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).

Results: As young adults become of legal age to use tobacco products, there seems to be an immense increase of tobacco use. According to the 2004 FYTS, 22.9% of high school seniors reported that they were current smokers (smoked cigarettes on one or more of the past 30 days). However, among young adults ages 18-24, 25.1% were current smokers (BRFSS, 2004).

Conclusions: Young adults, ages 18 to 24, are particularly vulnerable to tobacco use because of legal access to tobacco products and reduced family and community protective factors. Programs targeted towards this population are scarce but could prove to be critical areas for intervention efforts aimed at reducing adult cigarette use. Enhanced surveillance efforts to collect data on this population are necessary to develop and support program and evaluation activities.