Health Effects of Smoking in Primary School

Smoking cigarettes is harmful to one's health at any age, but especially for young smokers and for those who have started smoking at a very young age. Unfortunately, those children who have started smoking in primary school will be susceptible to a greater number of health risks than their non-smoking classmates.

Addiction

• The development of nicotine addiction in primary school children results in the need for routine smoking, and possibly an increase in the number of cigarettes smoked on a daily basis. Young children are affected by nicotine just like adults, developing nicotine withdrawal if they try to quit. Addiction will increase the number of cigarettes smoked and will extend the period that the child smokes, perhaps indefinitely.

Breathing Problems

• Primary school children who smoke have a reduced amount of oxygen in the lungs, and will experience shortness of breath and exhaustion more easily than non-smokers. This can effect the overall health and fitness of children, since they need exercise to remain healthy and fit.

Respiratory Diseases

• Respiratory problems, such as bronchitis and emphysema, can appear quickly in smokers of a young age. The chance of developing more serious respiratory diseases later in life also increases the younger the smoker was when he or she started smoking. Adults who began smoking cigarettes in primary school are at a greater risk of developing these diseases than smokers who started later in life.

Heart and Circulatory Diseases

• Chronic, long-term use of cigarettes can result in circulation problems and heart disease. Just like respiratory diseases, earlier use of cigarettes increases the long term risk of developing heart disease.

Lung Cancer

• Similar to other smoking-related diseases, the chance for smokers to develop lung cancer increases the younger they were when they started smoking. Lung cancer is often developed after a long period of smoking.