The newest solution on the horizon to prevent your young adult from smoking is to buy him the mobile phone that he has been pestering you for. A study published in this week's edition of the British Medical Journal, claims that mobile phones compete with cigarettes to fulfil teenagers' need to be fashionable and socially acceptable. The study conducted by an anti-smoking group, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), in England, revealed that smoking in teenagers had decreased from 30% to 23% between 1996 and 1999. This corresponded closely with an increase in the sale of mobile phones. Though these may not be directly linked, the money spent on paying bills on the phone may leave less money for the child to spend on cigarettes. The study cites various reasons for this. It says that a mobile phone satisfies a teenagers need to feel independent, 'grown up' and mature. It is to assert this perceived freedom and maturity that teenagers usually begin smoking in high school. WAP enabled mobile phones with latest technologies may make smoking an old-fashioned way of showing rebellion and adult behaviour. The researchers predict that with the marketing of mobile phones with the same flavour as cigarettes, to promote self image, the two have become competitors for teenage attention; a war that mobile phones might eventually win. If the study is relevant in the Indian scenario, then soon we might have "no WAPing or text messaging" zones in popular eating joints rather than the usual "no smoking" ones. British Medical Journal, Vol. 321, No. 7269, Pg-1155 November 4, 2000