Teen Tobacco Trap

50% Acquire Habit at 14
Extracted with grateful thanks from "The Smoke Stops Here!" (www.thesmokestop.com)

As of this writing, spit tobacco is enjoying a resurgence of popularity among our teens.

We need to talk to teens -- ours, the neighbor’s, everyone’s -- anyway and anytime we can, because the younger they begin experimenting with cigarettes, the surer they are to develop a lasting addiction to nicotine.

Most teens believe they can quit any time they want. As former smokers, we can offer our own battle with addiction as proof to them that it isn’t so.

Teens underestimate the health risks of smoking while simultaneously overestimating their ability to stop once they've started. Here are the devastating statistics:

• 9 - 10 Years Old -- 10% of all kids who pick up the cigarette habit begin at this tender age.
• 14 Years Old -- by age 14, 50% of all teens who will go on to become smokers have already acquired a habit.
• 13 -15 Years Old -- 20% have smoked a cigarette in the past 30 days.
• 16 -18 Years Old -- 30% have smoked a cigarette in the past 20 days.
• 18 - 20 Years Old -- 70% of this age group who smoke between one and five cigarettes a day will still be smoking in 5 years.
• Graduates from High School -- 50% of smokers in high school have tried unsuccessfully to quit. The younger our children begin smoking, the greater the chances are that they will become heavy smokers as adults.

What We Can Do
A teen is 10 times more likely to take up smoking if his or her best friend smokes. Teach your teens that they can avoid this by being prepared for the first time they are ever offered a cigarette, and remind them at frequent intervals that this will happen eventually.

It really is as easy as just saying “no," if you have taken the time to impress upon them with the importance of being prepared.

Roll up a piece of scrap paper to look like a cigarette. Pretend to sneak up on your teen while he or she is watching TV and make a joke of offering it as a cigarette.

On the way to school, point out smokers in cars and on the street and comment on how silly they look sucking on a cigarette, especially considering that inside, it’s filled with 43 lethal poisons.

The majority of teens who pick up the smoking habit smoke their first cigarette with a friend. Explore literature, watch TV specials and share facts with your teens about the perils of smoking.

Don't be judgmental and don't panic if you discover your teen or pre-teen already smokes. If they're like most teens, they've at least already tried it.

Ask them straight away if pressure is being exerted on them by their friends and other acquaintances to smoke and then remember that rehearsing with them on how to say "no" is an investment worth its weight in gold.

Putting Our Teens In Touch With Their Bodies
Spend time with your teens playing sports or engaging in activities that require high energy. Point out the magnificence of the body they’re building by keeping it clean and healthy.

Educate them on simple, easy facts, for instance: how smokers have a much higher incidence of respiratory infections, flu and colds, how they miss more days of work on average than non-smokers and especially point out the social stigmas associated with smoking -- such as a foul breath nobody wants to smell while kissing.

Number One, of course, is to be a role model.

If you're a parent, don't smoke.

If you smoke, quit.

If you're not a parent and you smoke, make it a point never to let even a single child see you smoking. Give our teens the best gift someone could have given you when you were still a teen: the insight, understanding and courage NOT to smoke.

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