An estimated 1.4 million teens below the age of 18 in the United States start smoking each year. According to the National Survey of Drug Use and Health, conducted by the Office of Applied Studies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, eight out of 10 current smokers started when under the age of 18, and 20 to 29 percent of all U.S. teens use tobacco products of some variety. These staggering statistics demonstrate the grave reality of tobacco use by teens and adults in the United States. Tobacco smoking has severe health consequences. The problem is that it takes a while (sometimes decades) for these diseases to develop, and teens believe it won't happen to them.
Influences on Teen Smoking
Teens smoke for many reasons, including a positive portrayal of smoking in the media on both television and in movies, peer pressure, parental smoking, socioeconomic status, and education level. Attitudes toward smoking in our society has changed and the emergence of a negative association with smoking has decreased the prevalence significantly, according to the Surgeon General's report on secondhand smoke.
Smoking Rates Among Teens Declining
According to the Centers for Disease Control's Youth Health and Behavioral Surveillance report on smoking rates by teens, rates for smoking a tobacco product increased throughout the 1990s but has been dropping since 1999. The number of teens who have ever smoked dropped significantly from a high in 1999 of 70 percent to 46 percent in 2009. Current smoker rates also dropped from 36 percent in 1997 to 19 percent in 2009, with only 7 percent of those reporting themselves as a frequent smoker (see Resources). While all the rates measured show a reduction in teen smoking since 2003, the rate of decline is slowing.
Smoking-related Deaths
According to the "Report on Tobacco Use" by the World Bank, it is estimated that smoking can decrease life expectancy by 20 to 25 years, making smoking the most preventable cause of premature death. Smoking has been linked to the development of lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, emphysema, and sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. It is also involved in the development of cardiovascular heart disease, stroke and several forms of cancer, including lung, esophageal and pancreatic cancers.
Most Teens Try Smoking Before 18
Most lifetime smokers start before they turn 18. Addiction to nicotine may be greater in the young since lungs, brains and bodies are still developing and growing, according to Dr. A.J. Henderson at the University of Brisol. Many reasons why teens start smoking exist and many believe they can stop when they want or need to do so. However, in a World Bank report on tobacco control, on average less than two out of five teen smokers were able to quit smoking.
Other Forms of Tobacco
Other tobacco products include menthol cigarettes, hookahs, kreteks or clove cigarettes, bidis, snus, and chewing tobacco. Generally these products are thought to be herbal cigarettes, or smokeless, and therefore safer. However, this is not true. These products contain toxins similar to regular cigarettes. They also may not contain filters or require increased puffing to remain lit. As a result, a smoker is likely exposed to higher levels of these toxins, according to Dr. Alexander Prokhorov and colleagues for the Tobacco Consortium of the American Academy of Pediatrics Center for Child Health Research.
