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Facts to Help Keep Students Away From Smoking

Because most smokers report picking up the habit during their teen years, it's important to teach children and teens the dangers of smoking early to encourage them to not start. If a child never puts a cigarette in his mouth, then he won't need to worry later about breaking a serious addiction that is very difficult to overcome. There are many facts you can cite to help keep students away from smoking. Children and teens should know that life is much easier if they never smoke at all.

  1. The Cost

    • To help keep students away from smoking, give them facts that hit them in the pocketbook. Tell them how much a pack of cigarette costs. If a person smokes a pack a day, multiply that by 365 days to show them how much is spent on cigarettes in a year. Find the most current cost per pack in your region for this fact.

    Personal Hygiene and Dental Issues

    • Give your students information about the outward effects of smoking. They should know that smoking makes your breath and hair stink, and leaves your clothing and the interior of your car and home smelling stale. It will even stain the walls, curtains and windows in your home.

      Smoking will stain your fingers and your teeth, and is bad for your overall tooth and gum health. Even if a smoker tries to keep up with good dental hygiene by regularly visiting a dentist, let students know that smokers don't recover as quickly from dental procedures as do non-smokers and may experience more tooth- and gum-related health issues because of smoking.

    Other Health Hazards

    • Emphasize to students that smoking damages your lungs and leaves you short of breath. Ask your student if he wants to end up hauling an oxygen tank around with him everywhere he goes. Stress to students that when you can't breathe, that pretty much eliminates doing any of the physical things that they enjoy doing. Smokers have more medical problems in general than non-smokers. Point out the expense of medical treatment and the drudgery and inconvenience of having to go to the doctor's because of smoking-related illnesses. Smokers also have a hard time getting health insurance.

      Smoking leads to cancer, lung disease, heart disease, emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and poor circulation. It is very hard on the skin, causing wrinkles and lines that give the appearance of premature aging.

    Other Considerations

    • Let students know that if they smoke, the secondhand smoke from the cigarette can damage the lungs of others. If they smoke while pregnant, they increase the risk of having a preterm or low birth-weight baby.

    Social Pariah

    • You can tell your students that although they may think their peers will consider them cool if they smoke, they will find out in short order that most people will going to consider them something of a social outcast.

      Smoking is also a terribly inconvenient habit because in most places, it is forbidden to smoke inside anymore. This means smokers will spend their lives on the front porch, in the rain, sleet, snow and hail smoking while everyone else is inside, warm and enjoying themselves.

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