Tobacco use and awareness patterns among students of an Industrial training Institute in Mangalore, South India.

Background: Tobacco use is a common form of addiction which is started at an early age in various forms.Aims: To look at the use of tobacco products among students and to assess the awareness of students regarding the adverse effects of tobacco use.Material and methods: A cross sectional survey of students of a government run industrial training institute.Results and conclusion: Mean age of starting tobacco consumption was 16.3 years. Influence of friends mentioned by 47.05% of users for starting tobacco use. Awareness regarding health problems was seen in 99.7% of all students, among whom 82% were aware of malignancies.