Thursday, October 11, 2007

Who is at risk?


It’s believed that the adolescents are at the maximum risk. Over the last 10 years the number of kids under 18 who become daily smokers increased by 70 per cent. Roughly 3,000 kids become regular smokers every day. Worse, almost 1/3 of them will die from a tobacco-related illness (Dental Health Foundation, http://www.dentalhealth.ie/whatsnew/index.tmpl?_eqRIDdatarq=20040224175004) The susceptibility to smoking starts around age 10 years and peaks by age 14 years in close to 60 per cent of the population. And once thy have experimented, approximately half continue to smoke and become addicted to the nicotine content in cigarettes. An adolescent, who thinks that the health problems of smoking can be alleviated, provided he or she can stop smoking before the age of 35, appears to be at much greater risk of experimentation. Furthermore, older the habit and more the number of cigarettes smoked in a day, harder is it to quit.

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