TEENAGE girls are taking more risks with their health, according to a major survey of nine to 15-year-olds across Cumbria.

The survey showed that by the time they are 15, 36 per cent of girls will be occasional or regular smokers, compared to 13 per cent of boys.

At the same age, 57 per cent of boys and 59 per cent of girls will have had an alcoholic drink in the last week.

The statistics show that girls' drinking is increasing faster than their male friends.

More than 1,800 youngsters, including one-third from south Cumbria, completed a lengthy questionnaire for the survey.

It came in the same week as Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested that random drug tests would be allowed in schools.

County drugs education co-ordinator Alan Tarn said: "We are concerned about the continuing rise in risk-taking activities of teenage girls.

"The ones that really stand out are smoking and alcohol both of which increased for teenage girls much faster than teenage boys."

Mr Tarn said that the number of part-time jobs available in Cumbria gave teenagers the chance to boost their disposable incomes, and there was a culture of drinking alcohol among young people.

Girls matured faster than boys, and 15-year-olds girls were more likely to frequent the same places as 17-year-old boys, he said.

Short-term problems included the fact that teenage girls would be breaking the law by buying alcohol, while there were long-term health problems associated with both smoking and drinking.

The problems would not be restricted to towns, he said. The pub was often the social centre of the village where young people would go to play pool at a relatively young age.

However, there were encouraging signs in the survey, which has been carried out every two to three years since 1988 by the Cumbria healthy schools team, Cumbria Drug Action Team and the county's primary care trusts.

Smoking among boys appears to be falling and, although by time they reach age 15, 38 per cent of boys have been offered cannabis, only 27 per cent have taken up the offer, showing a level of resistance to drugs, said Mr Tarn.

A quarter of secondary age pupils have been offered cannabis, but that was only up by one per cent since 2000.

The survey also picked up on "very strong resistance" to hard drugs with ecstasy and heroin being only rarely mentioned.

The data will now be used by schools to help them ensure they are meeting pupils' needs, and by the primary care trusts to make sure suitable services are being provided.

Mr Tarn said that the guidance being issued to schools on random drugs testing included many caveats, and schools were being advised to proceed with caution.