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Facts About Tobacco for Kids

Modern research unequivocally proves that smoking is a deadly habit that causes short-term and long-term health problems. The rate of addiction for nicotine smokers is higher than for people who use alcohol, marijuana, or cocaine. About one-third of all teenager-smokers will die as a result of a smoking-related disease. The majority of regular smokers, 90 percent to be exact, become smokers while in young adulthood. Researchers have found multiple reasons why teenagers start smoking, such as to look cool, appear older or to fit in with other friends.

  1. Becoming a Smoker

    • In 2009, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health Data found that more than 2.8 million adolescents under the age of 18 are current smokers in the United States. More than a third of all kids who try a cigarette just once will become regular smokers before they turn 18 years old. About 20 percent of high school students in the United States are regular smokers before they leave high school. Each year 400,000 adolescents become regular smokers.

    Short-Term Health

    • A teenager smoker has a resting heart rate that is two to three beats per minute faster than that of a non-smoking teenager. Young adult smokers can slow the growth of lung function from smoking and can have trouble with breathing from airway obstruction. Teenagers who start smoking by the ninth grade are more than twice as likely to report coughing up phlegm with blood by the time they are seniors. Even a few years of smoking while in young adulthood can cause the loss of smell and hearing problems.

    Long-Term Health

    • Smoking while starting at a young age increases a person's chances of developing: high blood pressure, heart disease, throat cancer, lung cancer, respiratory problems, loss of smell, hearing problems, vision problems, reduced immune system function, tooth decay, gum disease and pre-cancerous gene mutations. Smokers are 10 times more likely to become alcoholics than non-smokers. Smoking causes hair and clothes to stink of old cigarette smoke. Smokers are more susceptible to illnesses such as influenza and have more severe symptoms for the flu than non-smokers.

    Preventing Youth Smoking

    • Children spend about a third of all their waking hours in school. School administrators and teachers can have a significant impact on limiting the influence of smoking for adolescents. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests some measures to prevent youth smoking. These include banning smoking on school grounds and all school-sponsored events, creating quitting programs for students and facility members and training teachers to teach preventive smoking lessons to students.

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