Introduction - Despite a decline in smoking rates among adolescents over the past decade, few studies have sought to assess the prevalence of new forms of tobacco use, such as hookah, or the impact of recent measures to combat youth smoking, particularly the ban on tobacco sales to those under 16. Methods - The self-administered ESPAD (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs) survey is conducted every four years and targets 16-year-old students in public, private, and agricultural schools. The most recent survey was conducted in the second quarter of 2007 in France and 35 other European countries. Results - The decline in smoking is confirmed by the 2007 data. The decrease is significant for daily smoking, falling from 33% in 1999 to 16% in 2007 among girls and from 30% to 18% among boys, although the proportion of heavy smokers (more than 10 cigarettes per day) remained stable over the period in question, thus highlighting the difficulty of changing the behavior of the most dependent smokers. Conversely, the proportion of occasional smokers—those who smoke less than one cigarette per day—has increased significantly. Furthermore, one in three students has used a hookah, but 4% have only tried tobacco in this way, while just under a third have only tried cigarettes. Among daily smokers exactly 15 years old, 86%—or 19% of this age group—report having purchased tobacco from a vendor in the past 30 days, i.e., illegally. [author’s summary]