In 2007, twenty percent of high school students and 6.3 percent of middle school students had become cigarette smokers according to statistics reported by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Every day 3,900 children light up their first cigarette and the CDC estimates that 1000 children daily become regular smokers. Adolescents not only suffer the health effects of cigarettes but they also have other high-risk behaviors commonly associated with cigarette smoking.
Other Drug Use
Teens who smoke according to a report from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, are "three times more likely than nonsmokers to use alcohol, eight times more likely to use marijuana and twenty-two times more likely to use cocaine." These types of drugs have associations with other high-risk behavior such as unprotected sex with multiple partners. Teens engaging in these high-risk sexual behaviors present an increased risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.
Addiction Rate
The rate of addiction is higher in young smokers. Children start to exhibit signs of addiction sooner than adults do. Irritability, strong urges to smoke and feeling anxious begin to emerge within days or weeks of starting occasional smoking according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. These symptoms lead teenagers to become frequent smokers, with more than one third of them becoming habitual smokers before they leave high school. Eighty percent of adults who have become habitual smokers started smoking in their teens.
Immediate Effects
While many of the ill effects of smoking take years to develop certain effects happen immediately. Cigarette smoking immediately raises the heart rate and blood pressure and regular smokers have a higher heart rate than non-smokers do. High School seniors who smoke are more likely to have a productive cough with phlegm or blood, shortness of breath, wheezing or gasping, poor dentition and overall poor health according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. According to research reported in the July 2009 edition of "Science Daily" smoking is associated with decreased IQ scores.
