Canadian teens smoke less,
drink more than average

 By Peter O'Neil, Europe Correspondent, Canwest News Service

Canadian teens are among the least likely of western youths to smoke, although they are hitting the bottle more often than their counterparts in every western country but the U.K., Denmark and Finland, according to a new report released Tuesday, Sept. 1.

The Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, in a major report on youth and education, also says Canada has an unusually high suicide rate among young people.

"Risk-taking in Canada is a tale of two extremes," stated the Paris-based OECD, a think-tank funded by 30 developed western governments, in the report, called Doing Better For Children.

The Canadian smoking rate for 15-year-olds is less than half the OECD average, with fewer than one in 10 lighting up regularly. Only American and Swedish youths smoke less.

"Canadian youth drunkenness is more of a problem," the OECD reported, with roughly one in four Canadians between ages 13 to 15 saying they have been drunk at least twice.

Only young Brits, Danes and Finns reported higher rates, with a third of British youth — following in their parents' footsteps in a country known for excessive drinking — admitting to having had at least two bouts of drunkenness.

Canada's youth suicide rate was a black mark in Tuesday's report, with 14.7 suicides per 100,000 boys and 5.1 per 100,000 girls between ages 15 to 19. The OECD rates were 10.2 for boys and 3.4 for girls.

Poverty was also more common in Canada, with 15 per cent of Canadian children living in poor households compared to an average of 12.4. And no country ranked worse than Canada in terms of the percentage of youths immunized for pertussis, also known as whooping cough.

"Only four in five infants receive a timely pertussis vaccination" in Canada, the report said.

However, Canada enjoyed a "solid" although not spectacular overall rating in terms of broad educational outcomes in the report.

The OECD, using 2006 figures, found that Canada ranked above average — and ahead of key competitors like the U.S., the U.K. and France — in an assessment of "average educational performance."

Canadian schools also reported less "inequality in educational attainment" than education systems in most other OECD countries.

The report's main recommendation called on developed countries to earmark a higher proportion of their youth spending on children up to age six.

OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said the world's current economic woes shouldn't be used to justify lower spending on education and youth.

"Governments should instead seize this opportunity to get better value from their investment in children," he said in a statement.