Child and Teen Tobacco Use
Facts about Kids and Tobacco
* Nearly all first use of tobacco occurs before high school graduation. If you can keep the kids from using tobacco when they are adolescents, most people will never start using tobacco.
* Cigarette smoking causes significant health problems among children and adolescents including coughing, shortness of breath, production of phlegm, increased respiratory illnesses, reduced physical fitness, an increased risk for heart disease, decreased lung growth and function, and overall poorer health.
* The younger you begin to smoke, the more likely you are to be an adult smoker.
* The younger you begin to smoke, the more likely you are to be an adult smoker. Young people who start smoking at an earlier age are more likely to develop long-term nicotine addiction than people who start later.
* Most young people who smoke regularly become addicted to nicotine and experience the same addiction as adult smokers.
* Most young people who smoke regularly are already addicted to nicotine and experience the same addiction as adult smokers.
* Some adolescent smokers report that they would like to quit smoking and have made many, usually unsuccessful attempts to quit. Those who try to quit smoking report withdrawal symptoms similar to those reported by adults.
* Adolescent tobacco users are more likely to use alcohol and illegal drugs than are nonusers. Cigarette smokers are also more likely to get into fights, carry weapons, attempt suicide, and engage in high-risk sexual behaviors.
* Young people are the chief source of new consumers for the tobacco industry, which each year, must replace the many consumers who quit smoking and those who die from smoking-related diseases.
Tobacco use among middle school students
The most recent numbers on tobacco use in middle school students come from the US Center for Disease Control’s (CDC’s) 2002 National Youth Tobacco Survey. These numbers have changed little since the previous survey in the year 2000.
* About 13% of students reported using some form of tobacco (cigarettes, smokeless, cigars, pipes, bidis [flavored cigarettes], or kreteks [clove cigarettes]) at least once in the past month.
* Boys (about 15%) were more likely than girls (about 12%) to use some form of tobacco.
Tobacco use among high school students
The most recent tobacco numbers for high school students also come from the National Youth Tobacco Survey. These numbers dropped substantially since the year 2000.
* Nationwide, about 28% of high school students reported using some type of tobacco (cigarette, cigar, pipe, bidi, kretek, or smokeless tobacco) on at least 1 of the 30 days before the survey.
* Over one fifth (23%) of high school students smoked cigarettes on at least 1 of the 30 days before the survey in 2002, down from the recent high of 36% in 1997.
* About 6% of high school students reported using smokeless tobacco at least once in the 30 days before the survey. Regardless of race, male students were much more likely to use smokeless tobacco than female students.
* About 12% of high school students had smoked cigars in the preceding 30 days. Male students (17%) were more likely to smoke cigars than female students (6%).
Special Concerns among Youths: Clove Cigarettes and Bidis
Clove and flavored cigarettes are used mostly by younger smokers. They are nearly ideal in design as a trainer cigarette for capturing young people as smokers. The false image of these products as clean, natural, and safer than conventional cigarettes seems to attract some young people who may otherwise not start smoking.
Clove Cigarettes (Kreteks)
Clove cigarettes, also called kreteks, are a tobacco product with the same health risks as cigarettes. They are imported mainly from Indonesia and contain 60% to 70% tobacco and 30% to 40% ground cloves, clove oil, and other additives. The chemicals in cloves have been implicated in cases of asthma and other lung diseases. Users often have the mistaken notion that smoking clove cigarettes is safer than smoking tobacco or marijuana.
Flavored Cigarettes (Bidis)
Flavored cigarettes, often called "bidis" or "beedies", are imported mainly from India. Their popularity has grown in recent years in part because they come in a variety of candy-like flavors such as strawberry, vanilla, and grape, are usually less expensive than regular cigarettes, and they often give the smoker an immediate buzz.
Bidis are hand-rolled in an unprocessed tobacco leaf and tied with strings on the ends. Even though bidis contain less tobacco than regular cigarettes, recent studies have found that they have higher levels of nicotine (the addictive chemical in tobacco) and other harmful substances such as tar and carbon monoxide. And because they are thinner than regular cigarettes, they require about 3 times as many puffs per cigarette. They are also unfiltered. Bidis appear to have all of the same health risks of regular cigarettes, if not more.