Advocates for youth and health officials are celebrating new survey results that show a dramatic decline over the last decade in the number of Hawaii middle and high school students who are active smokers.

But they’re also warning against complacency, saying adolescents and young adults are still susceptible to multimillion-dollar marketing efforts for tobacco products and "cigarette alternatives."

"There’s a concern because the tobacco industry does not rest in attempting to attract younger smokers to various forms of nicotine," said Julian Lipsher, chief of the Chronic Disease Management and Control Branch at the state Health Department.

He added that public awareness campaigns, grass-roots initiatives and statutory changes have turned thousands of Hawaii children away from ever picking up a cigarette, which greatly decreases the chances they’ll ever smoke.

"The community norms are very clear," he said. "This is a no-smoking community."

The 2011 Hawaii School Health Survey, released Monday, shows just 8.7 percent of public high school students said they had smoked in the last 30 days — down nearly 16 percentage points from 2000, when 24.5 percent of high schoolers were "active smokers."

In 2009, 11.3 percent of high school students reported smoking in the previous 30 days.

Smoking was also down among middle school students: 3.6 percent said they had smoked in the previous 30 days, from 5.3 percent in 2003 and 4.5 percent in 2009.

In addition, the percentage of high schoolers who reported using a tobacco product in their lifetime — roughly one-third — was down from nearly 50 percent in 2000.

Among middle school students, 17 percent reported having tried a tobacco product in their lifetime, from 30 percent in 2000.

The Youth Tobacco Survey is conducted every two years by the state Health and Education departments, and in 2011 nearly 3,000 public school students in sixth through 12th grade participated.

The survey’s results follow a national trend of declining cigarette smoking among teens and adolescents, though Hawaii’s averages are well below the nation’s. In 2009, the latest year for which data are available, about 17.2 percent of high school students and 5.2 percent of middle school students nationally reported being active smokers.

The Hawaii declines are "what we’ve been hoping for," said Nicole Sutton, proj­ect director for the REAL Hawaii Youth Movement, an anti-smoking awareness group. "This is so amazing to see this. It’s happening. Grass-roots efforts and policy work actually result in prevention."

Grady Sullivan, a University of Hawaii-Hilo student who joined the REAL movement as a senior in high school, said the "data speaks for itself."

"It’s proof that intervention does work," he said, adding that campaigns that encourage students to think about their choices — rather than telling them what to do — are particularly successful.

But, he pointed out, there is still work to be done. The percentage of youth smokers is "not at zero."

While the survey results are good news for those trying to keep young people away from cigarettes, Health Department officials noted the survey also highlights some troubling data:

» Ten percent of high school smokers under 18 reported their "usual source" for buying cigarettes was a store. That’s up from 5.7 percent in 2009 but way down from 26 percent in 2000.

High school smokers who purchased cigarettes in a store were most likely to get them at a gas station or convenience store. It is illegal to sell tobacco to a minor.

» Some 12.8 percent of high schoolers said they had tried a hookah, a water pipe used for smoking flavored tobacco, while 5.1 percent had used electronic cigarettes. This was the first time the survey included questions on alternative products containing nicotine, which officials worry are growing in popularity.

» Nearly 8 in 10 middle school smokers and 36 percent of high school smokers reported buying cigarettes somewhere other than a gas station, convenience store, grocery store or on the Internet. Such "unregulated venue" sales, the Health Department said, continue to be a concern.

About 24 percent of middle school smokers and 15 percent of high school smokers said they usually buy their cigarettes individually or outside of a pack.

» Once teens got addicted to cigarettes, it was tough for them to quit. More than half of middle school smokers and 41 percent of high school smokers said they weren’t able to abstain from cigarettes for even one month during their last attempt at quitting.

» And there is reason to be worried for nonsmokers, too. Nearly half of all high schoolers reported being exposed to secondhand smoke in a room or car in the week before taking the survey. While the figure is still high, it’s down from 74 percent in 2000.

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On the Net:

» The 2011 Hawaii Youth Tobacco Survey is available online at www.hawaii.gov/health.