A significant number of men and women start smoking during their teenage years or before that. According to the American Lung Association, every day nearly 4,000 children below 18 years start their habit of smoking.
Cigarettes contain about 4,000 toxic chemicals and have been linked to a wide range of diseases like lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and cancer. Apart from that, adolescents who start using tobacco early have been found more likely to engage in high-risk sexual behaviors and indulge in alcohol and drug abuse.
A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recently found tobacco use among teenagers has gone down considerably. The latest CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reported cigarette smoking among teenagers during 2000 and 2011 coming down by 33 percent, while use of tobacco in other forms like cigars and loose going up by 123 percent.
However, experts urge parents to monitor their children and follow some tips to avoid their risks of smoking. Following are some tips from Dr. Claire McCarthy, primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Boston Children's Hospital :
* Monitor your child's friends and their smoking habits as children with smoking friend are more likely to smoke
* Quit smoking- Children often learn smoking habit from their smoking parents, so stop smoking and set an example to the child
* Mingle with the kid freely to learn more about him/her and to provide an early intervention
* Exposure to cigarette ads or smoking in movies often encourage children to try out cigarette smoking
* Support any movement that demands an increase in taxes or price of the cigarettes. Children are less likely to start or continue smoking when cigarettes become expensive.
