Millennials Can Help Each Other Quit Smoking, New Study Shows

Young adults may be more likely to quit smoking if the push to do so comes from someone in their age group, new research shows.

Over a four-year period, a group of teens and 20-something's  went out to concerts, festivals and other events to talk to their peers about tobacco use. UC Davis just put out a report on their success. 

They found that 12.5 percent of the young people they'd talked to quit smoking later on. That's slightly higher than the national stats - 8 percent of adults age 18 to 24 successfully drop tobacco.

Sarah Hellesen was a peer educator with the project for two years. She said they tried to use casual, non-judgmental language instead of giving a lecture. 

And they never used the “black lung” to shame people out of smoking.

“So not so much trying to force them or judge them in any way saying ‘this is bad for you, this is terrible you shouldn’t be doing this, ’ but 'let’s think of some other ways that you might be able to go through your daily life and not be so reliant on tobacco.'"

They also gave out "quit kits" containing honey sticks, gum and stress balls.

Study organizers are looking at using this model on college campuses.