More aggressive measures are needed to counteract the social forces that prompt a quarter of U.S. youth to use tobacco products, concluded a National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine committee earlier this fall. In California, a community-based youth tobacco prevention effort developed by UC researchers has been under way since 1985. A just-released report on those efforts -- in which teens taught tobacco prevention to 9- to 12-year-olds involved in 4-H clubs -- showed that having peers deliver such a program can be educationally effective, says Marc Braverman, a UC Davis 4-H specialist. The approach, however, requires careful management by 4-H program staff. Boys involved in such a program showed a small but significant drop in intentions to smoke or chew tobacco, while girls' intentions showed no change, but ther intentions were lower than those of boys even at the outset of the program, according to the report. A copy of the report, co-authored by Braverman, appears in a special December 1994 issue of California Agriculture that recognizes the International Year of the Family.