According to figures from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of the United States,1 000 teenagers under the age of 18 take up smoking cigarettes on a daily basis. This is according to a study published in the journal Thorax. And according to studies in the UK, research suggests that approximately 600 children under the age of sixteen begin smoking every day in that country. The research also indicated that of the 600 young new smokers in the UK, 463 were from England and were between the ages of 11-15 yrs old.
“Smoking is among the largest causes of preventable deaths worldwide. The present data should help to raise awareness of childhood smoking and to focus attention on the need to address this important child protection issue,” said the research group. However, earlier studies had indicated that warning labels on cigarette boxes had little or no effect on young children who smoked according to reports.
The study conducted amongst researchers from the NIHR Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit at Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, Imperial College London, Cancer Research UK and Action on Smoking and Health in the UK.
According to the researchers, while smoking has negative effects at any age, young smokers increased their risk of developing progressive lung disease.
The team analysed data from the 2011 Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among People in the UK survey. They studied 6,519 children across 219 schools and then compared the responses to a questionnaire between regular and occasional smokers with smoking rates within the same age groups. These were compared with figures from the previous year. Demographic analyses were able to indicate not only the place where most new smokers resided but also the age groups.
“From the analysis, the investigators found that of 3.7 million children aged 11-15 in the UK, 463 start to smoke each day in England, 55 in Scotland, 30 in Wales and 19 in Northern Ireland – totalling 567 for the whole of the UK”, the study indicated.
The investigators said that they had hoped that while their study was based on estimates in the survey, they still hoped that this information would be useful to the regulatory bodies and authorities who devise messaging and programmes to deter and combat childhood smoking.
