Big tobacco companies target your kids
It used to be a rite of passage. In the 1980s, one in four teenagers smoked cigarettes weekly and many went on to get hooked. 
But young people today are not so keen. Patrick Killeen, 16, said he had never been attracted to smoking, but rather thought it was an anti-social thing to do.   
"There's a lot of places you can't smoke now ??? so if people want do it, they usually have to go somewhere else," he said. "It's definitely not cool."
While Patrick can think of one guy his age who smokes occasionally, neither he, nor his friends, want to take it up. 
"I think it would make me worse at sport, my fitness would go down and I would find it harder to breathe," he said. "I know it causes cancer too. I've seen the ads where people are in wheelchairs and need oxygen."
Public health experts are celebrating the views of students like Patrick. They say all indicators suggest the allure of smoking has faded for young people in Australia over recent decades. In 1984, 24 per cent of teenagers told surveys they smoked cigarettes in the previous week. By 2011, this had dropped to just 7 per cent. The federal government has not released more recent data since plain packaging was introduced in 2012. 
The trend has coincided with more graphic public health campaigns, higher taxes and the outlawing of store displays.
Acting director of Quit Victoria Kylie Lindorff??? said research also suggested plain packaging was putting young people off. 
"Brand and image is much more important to teenagers. We know plain packaging has decreased the appeal of packs to them," she said.
But public health experts fear tobacco companies are still trying to find new ways to get young people in. On Thursday, Fairfax Media revealed a global tobacco company was using freedom of information laws to try to obtain survey data on Australian teenagers' attitudes to smoking, possibly so it could hone its marketing tactics. 
Ms Lindorff said she was also concerned about the rise of e-cigarettes which are being heavily marketed to young people overseas through celebrity endorsements, sponsorship of sporting teams and at music festivals.
She said tobacco companies had been buying manufacturers of the battery-operated devices that heat a liquid to produce a vapour that users inhale.  
"They are selling them with glamour and sexual innuendo ??? It's like watching the tobacco industry 30 years ago when they could do whatever they wanted," she said.
While nicotine based e-cigarettes are banned in Australia, the sale of non-nicotine versions, which are often lolly-flavoured, remains unregulated in most states. So far, only Western Australia and South Australia have moved to ban them. This means children can buy them over the counter everywhere else.
Furthermore, tests conducted on supposedly non-nicotine versions sold in NSW and Tasmania have found some do contain nicotine.
Ms Lindorff said governments should be outlawing them nation-wide because companies could be spruiking them on the internet to get around Australia's advertising laws. 
A spokeswoman for Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy said: "Experts internationally remain divided about e-cigarettes, including whether they might help people to quit smoking, and the government is consulting with experts about this and other reforms to reduce the harm caused by smoking."