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Dear
Dr. Bill,
My son will be eleven years old and entering middle school
this September. Several times this summer, I have smelled
tobacco on his clothing and occasionally on his breath.
(I don't smoke myself. I hate the smell of it.) When I faced
him with this, he has denied that he was smoking, telling
me that some of his friends have started and, because he
is with them a lot, the smell must have gotten on his clothes.
Isn't this awfully young?
Rutherford
Mom
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Dear
Rutherford Mom,
According to a November 2000 article by the National
Center for Tobacco-Free Kids, the peak years for
first trying to smoke appear to be in the sixth and seventh
grades, or between the ages of 11 and 12, with a considerable
number starting even earlier. Yes, eleven years old is awfully
young; but not too young to be lured into addiction by the
killer tobacco industry.
Lifetime
smoking and other tobacco use almost always begins before
high school. Young kids' naïve experimentation frequently
develops into regular smoking, which typically turns into
a strong addiction -- well before the age of 18-- that can
overpower the most well-intentioned efforts to quit. Accordingly,
any efforts to decrease future smoking levels among high
school students, college-aged youths, or adults need to
include a focus on reducing experimentation and regular
smoking among teenagers and even pre-teens, as well. Delaying
the age when kids first experiment with cigarettes can also
reduce the risk that they become regular or daily smokers
and increase their chances of successfully quitting if they
do begin regular smoking.
Over
a third of all kids who ever try smoking a cigarette
become regular, daily smokers before leaving high school.
The addiction rate for smoking (the percentage of experimenters
who ultimately become habitual users) is higher than the
addiction rates for marijuana, alcohol, or cocaine. Moreover,
a September 2000 study found that symptoms of addiction
-- such as having strong urges to smoke, feeling anxious
or irritable, or having unsuccessfully tried to not smoke
-- can appear in young kids within weeks or only days after
occasional smoking first begins, and well before daily smoking
has even started.
This
addictive power of cigarettes explains the findings of a
Monitoring the Future survey reporting that approximately
nine percent of eighth graders and 18 percent of tenth graders
had already become regular daily smokers -- and four percent
of the eighth graders had become regular daily smokers before
leaving the sixth grade. In the twelfth grade, over a third
of all students have smoked in the past 30 days, and about
a quarter are regular, daily smokers. Smoking rates among
kids who drop out of high school are even higher. To look
at it another way, every day more than 6,000 kids under
18 try smoking for the first time, and another 3,000 kids
who have already experimented with cigarettes become new
regular daily smokers. Overall, more than 80 percent
of all adult smokers first become regular smokers before
the age of 18 and almost 90 percent do so before leaving
their teens. Although some kids who become regular smokers
quit before leaving high school, almost three out of every
four regular smokers in high school have already tried to
quit but failed. At any given time, fewer than one in seven
high school smokers have even been able to successfully
stop smoking for just 30 days or more. While only three
percent of daily smokers in high school think that they
will still be smoking at all in five years, over 60 percent
are still regular daily smokers seven to nine years later.
Rutherford
Mom, I suggest that you find out who your son's
friends are... have him bring them to your home to introduce
them to you....get to know them. And, absolutely forbid
him to smoke.. smell his clothes, smell his breath....whatever.
While you still have the clout, use it!!
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