One in Four High School Seniors Smoke: Is It an 'Epidemic'?
SodaHead Living
2012/03/09 18:46:19
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It's pretty hard to believe in 2012, but a whopping 25 percent of high school seniors are regular cigarette smokers, the U.S. surgeon general's office said in its first report on youth smoking since 1994, according to Reuters. And the habit often starts long before high school.
"Today, more than 600,000 middle school students and 3 million high school students smoke. We don't want our children to start something now that they won't be able to change later in life," Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin said in the report. Nine in 10 current smokers started before the age of 18, and here's where it gets really scary: Because it's so hard to quit, some 80 percent of high school smokers will continue to smoke as adults, the report says.
The good news: U.S. smoking rates have fallen since 1964, when the surgeon general issued the first smoking warning. But the habit, which has been linked to lung cancer and heart disease, kills more than 1,200 people every day, making it the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, Reuters reports.
"Today, more than 600,000 middle school students and 3 million high school students smoke. We don't want our children to start something now that they won't be able to change later in life," Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin said in the report. Nine in 10 current smokers started before the age of 18, and here's where it gets really scary: Because it's so hard to quit, some 80 percent of high school smokers will continue to smoke as adults, the report says.
The good news: U.S. smoking rates have fallen since 1964, when the surgeon general issued the first smoking warning. But the habit, which has been linked to lung cancer and heart disease, kills more than 1,200 people every day, making it the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, Reuters reports.
Dr. Howard Koh, assistant secretary for health at the United States Department of Health and Human Services, called for more action in a statement. "Until we end the tobacco epidemic, more young people will become addicted, more people will die and more families will be devastated by the suffering and loss of loved ones." Do you think youth smoking is an "epidemic"?
"Why are these busybody meddlers always so surprised when their efforts to modify and control people's behavior, fail?
They act like kids smoking is a brand-new phenomenon; my dad once told me he started smoking at age 9. MY DAD, who was born in 1940.
More than half the seniors I graduated with smoked; hell, probably more than half the school, and I graduated in 1985.
Smoking isn't a good, or smart thing, of course, but a lot of people do it, despite regulation and punitive taxation."
http://www.businesspundit.com...
The "being cool" factor always plays a major role.
I'm 13 and I don't smoke, I never will.