In their many efforts since the 1990s to prevent Canadians from taking up smoking, governments have had a big blind spot: young adults. That's the finding of new research published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health by Thierry Gagné, a doctoral student at Université de Montréal's School of Public Health.

Over the last two decades, use of tobacco by high–school students has dropped dramatically but smoking by young people aged 18 to 25 has stayed relatively unchanged, with many young adults taking up the habit in college or on their first job.

It's now time to address this problem of delayed onset of smoking by extending prevention campaigns from teens to young adults, Gagné argues in his paper, written with University of British Columbia sociology professor Gerry Veenstra.

Smoking prevalence and initiation rates has been steadily decreasing among Canadian youth (ages 11–17) since the mid 1990's, with prevalence rates dropping by half between 1994 and 2004 and again by half between 2004 and 2014. According to the Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey, initiation to a first cigarette fell from 45% to 8% between 1994 and 2014 among 11– to 14–year–olds. Among 15–17 years old, it fell from 48 to 29% between 2006 and 2014. On the other hand, using the Canadian Community Health Survey, the largest of its kind in the country, we found that trends in initiation to a first cigarette, as well as in daily smoking have not changed significantly. Between 2001 and 2013, about 14 to 16% said they experimented with a first cigarette during their young adulthood and 8 to 9% went on to daily smoking.

The recommendations to public health authorities are same things that Stéphanie Gaudet, a University of Ottawa sociology professor, recommended 10 years ago; they're still very à propos to tobacco control today: a) Adapt our surveillance infrastructure to monitor young adults’ smoking. b) Integrate young adults into current teen tobacco–control initiatives. c) Develop a global young–adult public health strategy. d) Include the voice of young adults in these developments. e) Work with other institutions that focus on young adulthood in education, employment and family matters. f) Work with other institutions that focus on disadvantaged young adults in health care, foster care, social services and other areas.