By banning smoking at work and inrestaurants and bars, the U.S. government has apparently made adent in teen smoking.

That’s the word from a long-term study of trends among youngsmokers from the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Educationof the University of California, San Francisco.

Researchers were able to frame the effect in terms the tobacco industry can wellunderstand: They said the dampening impact was the same as anadditional per-pack cigarette tax of $1.57.

Reporting on the study’s results, Reuters said that there weretwo major conclusions:

1) Smoke-free workplaceregulations decreased the odds of teens taking upsmoking by a whopping 30 percent;

2) Smoke-free bars had little to no measurable effect onwhen teens began to smoke, although such laws did tend to reduceyouth smoking in general.

Thus was the power of the workplace isolated and heralded by theresearchers.

“When you pass workplace laws it sends a strong message thatsmoking is out,” said the study’s senior author, Stanton Glantz.“Teenagers are looking to adults, and see adults rejectingsmoking.”

Glantz told Reuters that, although raising taxes on cigarettesclearly cuts down on the number of young people who take upsmoking, the study proved that such factors as smoke-freeworkplaces can have a powerful effect as well.