SMOKING

Harmful Effects of Smoking in Teenagers

Harmful Effects of Smoking in Teenagers

Introduction

Smoking in teens is an ongoing dilemma regardless of a general down turn in smoking rates amidst adults. Teen smokers become adult smokers with continual wellbeing troubles that consume billions of healthcare dollars per annum. If countries round the globe took a more powerful stand contrary to youth smoking, these charges would fall radically. For centuries tobacco has had both recreational and ceremonial use. Corporate cigarette manufacturing began in the United States in 1847 with the establishment of the Philip Morris Company and the J. E. Liggett Company. The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company followed in 1875. The use of tobacco by soldiers in World War I increased cigarette consumption in the United States.

Smoking Rates

When it is being called into inquiry on numerous fronts, smoking rates vary from one country to another since they are influenced by cultural dissimilarities, however, in general smoking has continued to be a commonly agreeable perform until now. The global smoking rates in teens are approximately 20 percent on an average, with Greenland reporting a staggering 55 percent of teenagers smoking, whereas, nearly Europe reports a 33 percent rate of smoking in teenagers. A higher tendency to smoke is found in Hispanics and whites as compared to Asians and blacks. Other ethnic disparities include white smokers relieving their bodies of nicotine sooner as compared to very dark smokers, which may also, indicated why dark smokers tend to smoke lesser than the white smokers (Botvin, 2000).

Youth Smoking Facts

Nearly fifty-four percent of high school students have experienced cigarette smoking, with almost all of them having their first smoking experience before graduating from high school. Nearly twenty-eight percent of high school students admitted to using tobacco once in a month. The percentage of middle school students using tobacco once a month was observed to be at twelve percent, whereas, twenty-one percent adults admitted using it once in a month. It is commonly observed that smoking is taken up by students before high school. It intensifies in high school, therefore, significantly increasing the probability of smoking becoming an addiction. A high probability of the habit extending into adulthood exists when a teenager takes up smoking in their early teens. Approximately ninety percent of adult smokers take up smoking before the age of eighteen. And nearly half of them suffer from death caused by diseases associated with smoking. Tobacco is considered to be the entrance drug that leads teenagers to choose other substances and alcoholic beverages in addition to becoming engaged in various other risky behaviors.

Teenagers who smoke are eight times more probable to use marijuana, 22 times more probable to use cocaine and three times more probable than nonsmokers to use alcoholic beverage, as compared to non-smokers. In addition, they are also more probable to take up reckless behavior including taking part in illegal activities. Perhaps this is based on fact because the hindrances of what is commonly agreeable in their individual life are different ...