Smoking and children - is a very serious problem, not only medical, but also social, and year by year it becomes more and more complicated. In accordance withWHO (World Health Organization) statistics almost 90 percent of adult smokers began smoking when they were teenagers, as they wanted to look like adults. In many countries one third of teenagers are smokers. The considerable part of them started smoking at the age of 7 to 10 already. It is sad but true, that the number of smoking people increases at the expense of girls in recent years. Moreover the number of girl-smokers exceeds the number of boy-smokers. Teenagers don’t realize hazards of smoking, because they constantly observe adults smoking easily at their presence.
83 percent of confidentially questioned teenagers aged 12-15 years old, who had already tried to smoke, characterized their feelings from the first cigarette by such phrases as: “the head is spinning”, “clouded consciousness”, “burning pain in the stomach, feeling sick” etc. But when teenagers were asked about the same in the presence of their mates, they corrected their answers according to their peers’ reaction, grossly exaggerating so-called “kef”, but they couldn’t explain their feelingsdistinctly. In the group poll only 15 percent of teenagers told of smoking with disapproval, but added at the same time, that “everybody is smoking, therefore we have to get used”. After the fist cigarette the respondents didn’t feel any addiction to smoking. But when they got disappointed (after a quarrel with friends or relatives), the wish for smoking appeared, as they believed it helps to get rid of distressing thoughts (about suicide, for example). The same thing happened with teenagers with inactive attitude to life, strong depression or pessimistic habitude.
Many smokers started the count of cigarettes in time of their youth or even in childhood. Everybody knows, why a boy aged 9-10 years old starts taking a puff at his cigarette and puffing smoke without his parents’ knowledge. It is clear – he wants to look like adult, like a tough guy. He behaves this way not for his sake, but for his peers and all people around in general. This “tough guy” goes on the street, taking not yet sure motions while trying to puff and all his sight says: “Look, I’m adult already, I’m already smoking!” And he doesn’t realize what a sorry spectacle he presents at the moment.
Why then a cigarette became such an attractive thing among teenagers?
So, the main factors pushing children to take a cigarette are:
A child is not the absolute copy of an adult. All systems and organs of a child are still in process of development. So is the condition of metabolism, which has some features typical for a young organism. That is why children or teenagers are considerably more sensible and open to injury by any hazardous substances including tobacco poison, than adults.
First of all smoking kids suffer from changes in functions of central nervous and cardiovascular systems. Such children become impulsive, hot-tempered, unrestrained, inattentive.
Gradually they get addicted to tobacco, feel discomfort without a cigarette and get nervous. All thoughts are about the only thing – to smoke as far as possible. American scientists found out, that smoking teenagers have a bad memory, they experience problem with learning texts. It is proved, that 50 percent of smoking schoolchildren study not well.
The organism of a smoking teenager has troubles with metabolism, especially with assimilation of vitamins A, B1, B6, B12, vitamin C gets destroyed. It becomes the main reason which slows down common development and retards growth. As a result young smokers often suffer from anaemia and myopia. Smoking causes inflammatory processes in nasopharynx. Early smoking worsens hearing, that’s why smoking children don’t hear low sounds very well.
Lethal dose of nicotine for adults – a pack smoked at once. For teenagers – HALF A PACK!
There are several ways here.
A mother is embarrassed: she has known her son and daughter were smoking. A smell of cigarettes in the room helped her to clear up the mystery. There were empty packs and cigarette ends in the slop bucket. Anxious she told her husband, a non-smoker, about the incident. The parents signed up the children to take the rehabilitation and support program to break them of the habit of smoking.
If you don’t succeed in catching your kids smoking, try to find out, who they communicate with and where they spend the time after school. Somebody will surely tell you, if your teenager’s friends smoke or not.
There is no need to ask your son or daughter for not communicating with their smoking friends, that’s useless. Instead invite their friends to your place, show them reels from the video or the internet picturing irreversible negative influence of smoking on human organism. Hand them books describing smoking consequences, or invite a doctor to their class at school or to the parents' meeting in order to discuss the smoking hazards. Organize parents and ask the school direction and teaching staff to fight against smoking. There must be neither smoking area, nor non-smoking area at school. Smoking must be completely forbidden instead. Arguing against possible protests, you can always explain the tough position about smoking: to be kind - sometimes mean to be severe. Smoking kills, and this time there must be no place for euphemism.
Remain inflexible in your attempts to fight against smoking among teenagers. Smoking teenagers will become smoking adults soon and will suffer from smoking hazards in future. Instead of waiting for a trouble, start the war against smoking today. If you love your children, remain adamant in your intensions. One day the kids will thank you for your insistence and efforts on the way to overcome this terrible and killing habit.
Always choose your health!
You shouldn’t be a magician or extrasensory individual to find out, whether your kid smokes or not. Many parents say: “Breathe now!” Not feeling a smoky smell, parents set their mind at rest. But children are not so stupid and surely they take candies and chewing gums after a cigarette. The most skilful ones take a bay leaf, coffee beans or a breath control pill.
Hands of little smokers smell as well. Even if they hold a cigarette with the help of sticks, the tobacco smell stays on hands and sleeves - you just need to smell them well. Some kids can rub the hands with citron.
If your child take a cigarette by hands, but wash them carefully or rub to get rid of tobacco smell afterwards, you can find anyway some tracks of nicotine on his fingers – yellowing or slight darkening.
You can examine your kid’s bag or schoolbag for tobacco. But don’t wait you will find half a kilo - there will be certainly no such amount inside. Everything you can find out is several grams of tobacco on the bottom.
Let him breathe into an empty jar, and you will put your nose in it afterwards. Even if he tried carefully to get rid of tobacco smell, it can be felt in the jar anyway.
If he constantly chews a chewing gum; if you feel a smell of coffee coming out of his mouth (he chews coffee beans); if he washes his hair, cleans his teeth or uses perfume etc too often, it can arouse your suspicion.
The best way to know, whether your child smokes is to visit a dentist. The dentist can define a smoking child at once.
Children often say they didn’t smoke, but stood next to smoking friends. That’s why if you noticed a regular smell of tobacco coming out of your child, perhaps you should better try to spy on him.
Face and hair can smell of tobacco during 1-1,5 hours (without a cap).
Tobacco smell out of mouth clings for about an hour.
