Young People and Tobacco Use - Part 1. Causes, Epidemiological Data and Health Consequences for Children and Adolescents

Smoking as an addictive habit, starts in childhood or early adulthood, causing extensive health problems and about 4.9 million deaths worldwide annually. The lowering of the age at which smoking starts has resulted in an increase in the long-term exposure to hazardous smoking products and the likelihood of an inability to quit smoking. The main factors associated with starting to smoke at an early age are the smoking habits of parents and siblings, easy access to cigarettes and other similar products, smoking among friends and schoolmates, the social and financial level of the family, the advertising of cigarettes and other similar products and the trend towards behaving like television and cinema actors. Smoking can harm young people: (a) During intra-uterine development, when the mother smokes, (b) through exposure to second-hand smoking, and (c) by active smoking and its hazardous effects on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Health professionals can play an important role in decreasing death rates due to smoking, by helping young people to avoid or quit this lethal habit.

Category: Volume 54, N 2
Hits: 864 Hits
Created Date: 15-06-2015
Authors: Panteleimon Perdikaris , Vasiliki Matziou