Most
people acknowledge that cigarette smoking is dangerous to one’s health.
The “Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids” highlights extra dangers faced by
teens because of their use or tobacco.
• Each day, more than
2,800 kids in the United States try their first cigarette; and another
700 additional kids under 18 years of age become new regular, daily
smokers. That’s more than 250,000 new underage daily smokers in this
country each year.
• The addiction rate
for smoking is higher than the addiction rates for marijuana, alcohol,
or cocaine; and symptoms of serious nicotine addiction often occur only
weeks or even just days after youth “experimentation” with smoking first
begins. Because adolescence is a critical period of growth and
development, exposure to nicotine may have lasting, adverse consequences
on brain development.
• Ninety percent of
adult smokers begin while in their teens, or earlier; and two-thirds
become regular, daily smokers before they reach the age of 19.
• 13.6 percent of high school students are current smokers by the time they leave high school.
• 15.7 percent of all
high school students (grades 9 — 12) are current smokers, including 15.0
percent of females and 16.4 percent of males. White high school
students have the highest smoking rate (18.6%), compared to Hispanics
(14.0%) and African-Americans (8.2%).
• If current smoking rates persist, 5.6 million children alive today will die prematurely from smoking.
• Roughly one-third of all youth smokers will eventually die prematurely from smoking-caused disease.
• Smoking can seriously
harm kids while they are still young. Aside from the immediate bad
breath, irritated eyes and throat and increased heartbeat and blood
pressure, short-term harms from youth smoking include respiratory
problems, reduced immune function, increased illness, tooth decay, gum
disease, and pre-cancerous gene mutations.
• Smoking during youth is also associated with an increased likelihood of using illegal drugs.
• The tobacco companies
spend more than $8.8 billion each year to promote their deadly products
— more than $24 million every day — and much of that making directly
reaches and influences kids.
• Kids are more
susceptible to cigarette advertising and marketing than adults. 85.8
percent of youth smokers (12 — 17) prefer Marlboro, Newport and Camel
(the three most heavily advertised brands), while only 61 percent of
smokers 26 or older prefer these brads. For example, between 1989 and
1993, spending on the Joe Camel ad campaign jumped from $27 million to
$43 million, which prompted a 50 percent increase in Camel’s share of
the youth market but had no impact at all on its adult market share.
Additionally, a survey conducted in March 2012 showed that kids were
significantly more likely than adults to recall tobacco advertising.
While only 25 percent of all adults recalled seeing a tobacco ad in the
two weeks prior to the survey, 45 percent of kids aged 12 to 17 reported
seeing tobacco ads.
• A Journal of the
National Cancer Institute study found that teens were more likely to be
influenced to smoke by cigarette marketing than by peer pressure.
Similarly, a Journal of the American Medical Association study found
that as much as one-third of underage experimentation with smoking was
attributable to tobacco company marketing efforts. In 2014, the U.S.
Surgeon General reported that “tobacco industry advertising and
promotion cause youth and young adults to start smoking, and nicotine
keeps smoking past those ages.”
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