While fewer teens are smoking tobacco these days, the National Cancer Institute wants to help those who do. So with that in mind, the organization has created a text-based program to help teens quit. The program, called Smokefree T-X-T, supplies subscribers with 24-hour help, including advice, tips and encouragement. It’s just one of several initiatives underway to help the 20 percent of tobacco-smoking teens break the habit. This year, the Smokefree Teen program unveiled a smartphone app called QuitSTART, which guides users through the quitting process—including monitoring cravings. “With 75 percent of youths between the ages of 12 and 17 owning a cell phone, there is immense potential for mobile technologies to affect health awareness and behavior chance among teens,” says Erik Auguston of the National Cancer Institute’s Tobacco Control Research Branch. (CNN)
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