ABSTRACT
The aim of this work was to study the prevalence of smoking in an urban population from cities with low environment pollution. From a sampling of basic and high school children, 1959 subjects coming from 406 homes were selected for the study and answered a questionaire about smoking. The adjusted prevalence of smoking among subjects older than 10 years old was 36,5 percent and 40,8 percent in subjects older than 15 years old. Prevalence in males was 49,4 percent and 35 percent in female. However among subjects between 10 and 15 years old, females had a higher prevalence of smoking. Most subjects smoked 1 to 9 cigarettes per day, always aspirated smoke and consumed all the cigarette. The prevalence of passive smokers was 65,5 percent. It is concluded that the prevalence of smoking is high, that women are starting to smoke earlier than men and that no effort is being made to stop this habit