Los Angeles leads the pack in anti-smoking and anti-soda. .

Strong policies against tobacco on campus. Kid-created murals. Health education graduation requirements.

Combined, these factors help account for the dramatic decrease in smoking among public high school students in Los Angeles County in recent years, says Rona Cole, coordinator of health education programs for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The national 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Study, a Centers for Disease Control survey, found a 45 percent reduction in cigarette smoking among L.A. students from 1997 to 2001. With 14.5 percent of students smoking, L.A. is already below the national goal to have less than 16 percent of youths smoking by 2010.

One of only 100 California districts requiring health education, L.A. has about 60 high school grants funding three antismoking programs, including: The Get Real About Tobacco program for high school students; a group for students caught smoking; and a cessation program.

The district also solicits help locally. Theater companies perform skits about tobacco issues, with teachers doing before-and-after discussions. AnimAction, a two-day workshop, has middle school students create anti-tobacco public service announcements. Professional animators judge the PSAs, which have appeared on five national and local television stations, Cole says.

Anti-smoking efforts are generally organized at the school level, she adds. Teacher coordinators earn $1,200 annually.

In other health news, L.A. also made headlines recently for following Oakland's lead in banning soda. "The LAUSD Healthy Beverage Resolution is an important first step," says Jacqueline Domac, health department chair at Venice High School. A two-year state grant will also help the district develop and implement policies to link education, physical activity and food.

"It should never be the responsibility of our students to subsidize their public education by making themselves ill with soda," she says. After only three soda-free weeks, Domac says teachers are "noticing the absence of the [student] `sugar rush' followed by the `sugar-crash' effect" caused by soda. In addition, other districts have expressed interest in establishing similar resolutions.

www.cdc.gov, www.ausd.k12.ca.us