Ninety-two percent of respondents in a recent survey agreed that part of Hawai'i's tobacco settlement money should be dedicated to programs to reduce smoking among minors and to other quit-smoking programs, the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii said yesterday.

"We've made great strides by reducing youth smoking from one in four youths to one in 10. However, we need to reach the 1,400 kids who start smoking every year," Deborah Zysman, the group's executive director, said in a news release.

The coalition said Hawai'i spends less than $8 million per year on tobacco-control programs; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that Hawai'i spend $15 million annually.

The coalition hired Qmark Research to conduct the survey. Five hundred Hawai'i residents were surveyed Dec. 3-12, 2009.