A survey of high school pupils and their attitudes to tobacco was carried out by an anonymous auto questionnaire by 630 pupils at the Alienor Aquitaine Lycee in Poitiers in April 1991. The population study had the following characteristics: 30% were boys, 70% were girls. The mean age was 18 +/- 1.31 years. The proportion of regular smokers (at least one cigarette per day, every day) was 33.9% in boys and 34.9% in girls. The boys had smoked on average 10.7 cigarettes per day for 3.5 years and the girls 9.1 cigarettes per day for 2.9 years. The smoker above all, used light colour tobacco (with filters 98%) but 29% only bought mild cigarettes. On the other hand 55% of the subjects wished to stop smoking. There was no statistically significant relationship between the smoking habits of the pupils and that of their parents on the one hand or on the regular participation in a sport, on the other. However, boarders smoked a lot more than the other pupils. The knowledge of the dangers of smoking were imperfectly understood, in particular, for chronic bronchitis, myocardial infarction, small birth weight of the newborn and cancer of the bladder. The changers of passive smoking were known by 91.6% of the pupils. Finally this study explored the opinion of the lycee pupils as regards to the six measures in the propaganda against smoking and on seven methods of information relating to the dangers of tobacco.