Talk to your children about the dangers of smoking

Pamela Egan Practical Practitioner

 

By: Pamela Egan, FNP-C CDE

 

 

Parents: Talk to your children about the dangers of smoking!

 

 

According to the 2002 Monitoring the Future study, the number of teenagers who smoke cigarettes is on the decline.

However, more than one in four high school seniors reported smoking in the past 30 days.

If you think your child is too young to try smoking, think again.

More than 20 percent of high school students report that they smoked a cigarette before age 13. Elementary school is not too early to talk to your child about not smoking or to even have conversations on an ongoing basis. If your child is 15 and doesn’t smoke, the discussions shouldn’t stop- she’s still at risk.

If you can prevent teens from smoking in high school, chances are greater that they won’t smoke as adults.

More than one-third of all kids who try smoking go on to smoke daily. And approximately 80 percent of adult smokers started before they turned 18.

Even though smoking numbers are down, in 2002, nearly 11 percent of eighth-graders, nearly 27 percent of 12th-graders had smoked a cigarette in the past 30 days. And that’s too many. The time is now to talk to your kids to help prevent them from smoking cigarettes.

Parents are the number one influence on their children’s lives. They may argue or seem to tune you out, but they’re still listening to what you have to say.

You can significantly reduce the odds that your child will smoke, drink alcohol, use other drugs and engage in premature and unsafe sex.

While smoking may not be your greatest concern, it’s worth close attention because of its direct health dangers and also because it’s associated with other risky behaviors.

Your child’s health is at risk. Why should you have a conversation about not smoking with your child? Here are some important points from the public health community.

  • Addiction. The younger people are when they start smoking, the more likely they are to become strongly addicted to nicotine.

Symptoms of addiction (having strong urges to smoke, feeling anxious or irritable or having unsuccessfully tried not to smoke) can appear in teens and preteens within weeks or only days after they become “occasional” smokers.

  • Teens and preteens who smoke are more susceptible to colds. They experience shortness of breath more often than those who don’t.
  • More Americans die from cigarette-related illnesses than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide and illegal drugs combined.

Almost nine out of 10 lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking cigarettes.

Smoking is a major cause of heart disease, emphysema and stroke and may increase the risk of oral cancer and gum disease.

A person who smokes a pack or more of cigarettes each day lives, on average, seven years less than someone who has never smoked. Secondhand smoke contains 43 chemicals that are known to cause cancer. Smoking is the most preventable cause of premature death in this country.

This article was originally published October 6, 2003 in The St. Tammany News.


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