By Lynne Adkins

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The latest government report on smoking rates has encouraging news in one major category.

Men and women between 18 and 24 years of age are smoking less according to a new government report which shows that in the past few years the number of young smokers fell more than 5 percent.

Dr. Barbara Campling, a medical oncologist at Thomas Jefferson University’s Kimmel Cancer Center, says there are a number of reasons for the decline.

“The increase in prices of tobacco products, the anti-smoking campaigns, restrictions on tobacco advertising, also the fact that most people are smoke free; so it’s not as socially acceptable as it used to be,” says Campling.

She admits most people know that smoking causes cancer, mainly head, neck and lung which is the leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women.