Teenagers are smoking less because mobile phones give them something else to do with their hands, a new report suggests.
Researchers commissioned by the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme believe the popularity of mobile phones with young people could be a factor in the falling number of 15-year-old smokers.
The number of 15-year-old boys who smoke regularly has dropped from 28 per cent in 1996 to 19 per cent, while the number of girls smoking has fallen from a third to a quarter.
Over the same period, the number of 15-year-olds owning mobile phones has gone from a handful to 73 per cent, reports The Times.
Mr Clive Bates, of anti-smoking group Ash, said: "Mobiles are smart, chic and adult.
"With pay-as-you go mobile phones, young people are even spending their money in the way they would have purchased cigarettes."