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In a new study conducted by Dr. Lisa Henriksen, a Stanford University School of Medicine researcher, it was found that point-of-sale advertising is the driving force behind coaxing teens to try cigarettes. Point-of-sale (P.O.S.) ads are marketing tools you see in stores that sell the advertised products; posters, lights, cardboard cut-outs, etc.

The study did make note of big tobacco’s long-held justification for P.O.S. advertising: point-of-sale advertising is intended to lure adults who already smoke away from their brand of choice, towards a competing brand. In a not-so-shocking turn of events, it was learned that teens exposed to P.O.S. ads (specifically at the stores monitored in this study) were twice as likely to try cigarettes. Given that in 2006, 90% of big tobacco’s $12.5 billion advertising budget went toward P.O.S. advertising, it really isn’t surprising that so many teens are susceptible to trying the deadly products.

The study began in 2003 and surveyed 2,110 students, of which 1,681 reported to have never tried smoking. One year later, 18% of the previously reported non-smokers had reported trying smoking.

When broken down, researchers learned that frequent visits to convenience stores (the places with the highest amount of P.O.S. influence) had a direct correlation to trying cigarettes. Students who visited convenience stores at least twice a week reported a smoking rate of 29%, whereas students who visited convenience stores less than twice per month reported only 9%. By the end of the study, it was found that teens who visited these stores moderately were 19% more likely to have tried smoking than those who didn’t visit and teens with frequent visits were 42% more likely to have tried smoking.

Just as the FDA becomes involved with the regulation of tobacco products, this study could hinder tobacco’s expansion even more. While no notable legislative lobbying has happened yet, numbers like these are hard to ignore. Many researchers and anti-smoking advocates believe this study may well be the first step towards banning tobacco P.O.S. advertisements altogether.

Lynda Mitchell is 52 and she is dying from smoking. She lives in the U.K. and grew up in a household where smoking was the norm; her parents routinely smoked 60 cigarettes per day. It’s not overly surprising that Lynda would be a prime candidate to contract Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) but what is surprising, is that Lynda has never smoked a cigarette in her life.

Lynda grew up in a home where her parents smoked day in and day out. She was so exposed to smoke that she grew up hating it and made the conscious decision to never become a smoker herself. In a tragically ironic turn of events, Lynda will ultimately die from a smokers’ disease despite never having been one. Her illness is a direct result of secondhand smoke. She is living proof the effects of secondhand smoke are VERY real.

Lynda’s parents, or parent rather, are no strangers to smokers’ diseases themselves. Her stepfather, Ray Evans, died of lung cancer (at age 60) twenty years ago. Her mother, June Evans, suffers from emphysema. An entire family suffering from the negative effects of smoking is experiencing said effects at different intervals.

For anyone who doubts, or denies, the negative effects of smoking, take a good long look at Lynda Mitchell . Not only will her parents become yet another number on the list of smoking casualties but Lynda herself will also pay the ultimate price…for something she didn’t even do.