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E-Cigarettes and Kids...E-nough
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| Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010 | | CWK Producer |
“You're only talking...a few hours or days before they begin to become dependent on that cigarette to feel okay.”
– Dr. Robert Margolis, substance abuse counselor
Electronic cigarette devices, called e-cigs, in flavors like bubblegum, popcorn, fudge and cookie dough, are becoming more popular with kids, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. It may seem innocent, but cigarette addiction and kids is a serious matter.
A black belt in martial arts, teenager Lavale usually doesn't have much trouble kicking his opponents, but kicking the smoking habit was a struggle.
"I never knew I could be so dependent on a product that I know would kill me, but it's just there—that addiction is right there," Lavale says.
A study published in the British Medical Journal says that kids show addiction-like symptoms within days of their first cigarette.
"You need to understand that if your child begins smoking cigarettes you're only talking a few cigarettes or even a few hours or days before they begin to become dependent on that cigarette to feel okay," says Dr. Robert Margolis, a substance abuse counselor.
Lavale folded to peer pressure and tried his first smoke when he was thirteen-years-old, he hated it. "I mean so horrible. The taste was horrible. The way my body reacted was horrible," he says.
Even so Lavale was quickly hooked. He says he went from one cigarette to a pack a day in no time at all. From there, the problem only got worse.
"As soon as my pack was finished I gotta run to the store and get another one," Lavale says. "I was actually addicted to this."
Lavalle battled with his addiction for three years, but he says his discipline in martial helped him beat the odds and quit. Other kids aren't so tough.
"So parents need to understand that this may not be a phase. This may not be something that they're going to grow out of. It may be the beginning of a life-long habit," says Dr. Margolis.
Dr. Margolis says that parents must have the 'smoking talk' with kids as young as eight, nine and ten years old—waiting much longer could be playing with fire.
What We Need To Know
In the U.S., while it is prohibited to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18, right now there is no ban on the sale of nicotine-dispersing faux cigarettes, called e-cigs, to children. Despite federal prohibitions, it is estimated that each day, more than 3,000 kids become regular smokers. That's more than one million kids a year. Roughly one-third of them will eventually die from a tobacco-related disease.
According to the Campaign 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 13, with a considerable number starting even earlier. Almost 90 percent of adult smokers began at or before age 18.
According to data from the University of Michigan' s 2007 Monitoring the Future Study, 8.8 percent of eighth grade students reported having first smoked by the fifth grade (ages 10 and 11), and 22.3 percent of eighth graders tried smoking by the eighth grade. Two out of three 12th-graders who were current smokers had started smoking by the end of ninth grade.
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, more than 60 percent are still regular daily smokers seven to nine years
A study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that teens are more likely to be influenced to smoke by cigarette advertising than they are by peer pressure.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey of ninth- through twelfth-graders in public and private schools throughout the country, reports the following statistics:
- 46.3 percent of students had ever tried cigarette smoking (even one or two puffs)
- 19.5 percent of students smoked cigarettes on at least one day during the 30 days before the survey
- 5.1 percent of students had smoked cigarettes on school property at least one day during the 30 days before the survey.
To prevent initiation of tobacco use and to help adolescents quit requires a comprehensive approach. This approach should include increasing tobacco prices; reducing the access and appeal of tobacco products; conducting mass media campaigns and school-based tobacco use prevention programs; increasing provision of smoke-free indoor air; regulating tobacco products; decreasing tobacco use by parents, teachers, and influential role models; developing and disseminating effective youth cessation programs; and increasing support and involvement from parents and schools.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids offers these suggestions:
- Make sure kids have the facts they need. Work to develop a firm, negative perception or attitude about smoking practices and their consequences.
- Emphasize the immediate health effects. Most teenagers wrongly believe that smoking will have no direct effect on their health until they reach middle age. But smoking causes many immediate or near-term effects on health, including persistent coughs, respiratory problems, a greater susceptibility to illness, and decreased physical performance.
- Emphasize the effects of smoking on physical appearance. Smoking actually causes yellow teeth, bad breath, smelly clothes, and more severe and early facial wrinkles.
- Destroy the myth that everybody smokes. Many kids overestimate the amount of smoking among their peers and such overestimation is among the strongest predictors of smoking initiation.
