Surgeon general calls smoking a 'pediatric epidemic'
Baku, March 9 (AZERTAC). Smoking among America’s youth has reached epidemic proportions, starting them on the path to a lifetime of addiction, according to the U.S. surgeon general’s office.
Among U.S. high school seniors, one in four is a regular cigarette smoker, and because few high school smokers are able to quit, some 80 percent will continue to smoke as adults, the office says in its first report on youth smoking since 1994.
‘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.
Regina Benjamin speaks at a news conference releasing the report ‘Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults today
An estimated 3,800 kids pick up their first cigarette every day and 9 in 10 current smokers started before the age of 18.
Some 99 percent of all first-time tobacco use happens by the age of 26, exposing young people to the long-term health effects of smoking, such as lung cancer and heart disease.
‘This report highlights the urgent need to employ proven methods nationwide that prevent young people from smoking and encourage all smokers to quit.
For every tobacco-related death, two new ‘replacement’ smokers under the age of 25 take up the habit.
The report criticized tobacco companies for targeting youth, saying the industry spends more than $1 million an hour - over $27 million per day - in marketing and promoting tobacco products.
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