Why do teens smoke? Despite the risks, many kids are still lighting up. Why?

It is no secret that smoking is bad for you. Parents, health experts, and even the U.S. Surgeon General tell you so. What you may not realize is that most smokers take up the habit before they reach adulthood. According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, more than 90 percent of adult smokers start smoking as teens, or younger.

Studies show that younger smokers ate more likely to become addicted to nicotine than people who start smoking later. If people can stay away from tobacco in their teens, says the American Cancer Society, most would never start using it later in life.

Medical researchers proved long ago that smoking is linked to many health problems, including heart disease and strokes. The carcinogens in cigarettes also make lung cancer a top killer among smokers. About 440,000 people in the United States die each year from smoking- and tobacco-related illnesses, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids estimates that every day more than 4,000 kids smoke their first cigarette. About 1,500 of those kids become daily cigarette users. What makes cigarettes so tempting to kids?

Peer Pressure

Peer pressure is one of the biggest factors in youth smoking, says Danny McGoldrick, research director for Tobacco-Free Kids. Smoking, McGoldrick told JS, is a way for kids "to belong and rebel [against parents] at the same time."

Many teens across the country are working to change that attitude. YDoUThink, a Virginia antismoking campaign, has ah outreach youth program called Y St. (Y Street). Y St.'s teen volunteers go to concerts and other youth gatherings, and distribute pamphlets with messages such as "Smokers earn 10 percent less money than nonsmokers," and "Cigarettes contain formaldehyde--the same stuff used to preserve dead frogs."

Monnia Deng, 17, is a Y St. volunteer. She knows the pressures on teens to smoke. "I really didn't want to, but I [thought], 'Why would it hurt?'," Monnia says about being offered a cigarette. "Now that I think about it, it was really stupid. I feel like you should set your limits. Everybody has their goals, and mine is to be smoke-free."

Monnia says that teens respond positively to her message when she approaches them at concerts, parties, and the local mall. "When you're a teen," Monnia told JS, "you're trying to make friends and fit in. When someone close to your age approaches you, it makes the environment more social than, like, a lecture."

A lot of her friends smoke cigarettes simply "because they're bored," Monnia says. "They are very short-sighted."

Marketing to Kids

In 1998, the country's major tobacco companies reached a legal settlement with 46 states. The settlement was the result of states' efforts to get companies to help pay for the medical costs of tobacco-related illnesses. Among other restrictions, the settlement barred tobacco companies from targeting kids in their ads.

A spokesperson for Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette company, told JS that the company made significant reductions in its advertising after the 1998 settlement.

But according to Tobacco-Free Kids, tobacco companies have actually increased their cigarette marketing expenditures by 125 percent since 1998. Ads pitched to adults still get through to kids, McGoldrick says. "It's all about creating a positive effect around smoking that makes it cool and acceptable," he told JS.

Monnia Deng and other teens are trying to counter such images with their own message. Teens see smoking as "cool now," Monnia says, "but they don't realize that this is actually a big deal."

Words to Know

* carcinogen: any substance that produces cancer.

* nicotine: the addictive chemical found in tobacco.

Your Turn

THINK ABOUT IT

1. Why do you think kids start smoking?

2. What would you tell a friend who says that smoking is cool?

* OBJECTIVE

Students should understand

* some of the reasons U.S. teens smoke, even though most know that it is a danger to their health.

* WORDS TO KNOW

cancer: a harmful tumor (mass of tissue) that invades healthy tissue as it spreads through the body * minors: people under the legal age for such things as smoking, drinking, and voting.

* BACKGROUND

Some young people believe that smokeless tobacco is less dangerous than cigarettes or cigars. It is not: It damages the gums and causes cancers of the mouth, pharynx, and esophagus. It also increases the risk of heart disease and strokes. (For more teen opinions on smoking, see Skills Master 2 on p. T-7.)

* CRITICAL THINKING

READING COMPREHENSION/RECALLING DETAILS: Why is smoking more dangerous to teens than it is to adults? (Young people are more likely to become addicted to nicotine than adults.)

FORMING AN OPINION OR ARGUMENT: Monnia Deng says that many teens smoke because they are bored, short-sighted, or think smoking is cool. Do you agree with her reasons? Why or why not? If you disagree, what do you think is the main reason teens smoke? (Answers will vary.)

* ACTIVITY

ACT IT OUT: Have students describe various situations in which teens may be tempted to smoke. Have them role-play those situations, showing ways that teens might be able to emerge from them without smoking.

STANDARDS

SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8

* Individual development and identity: How examples of and pressures from friends may influence kids' decisions about smoking.

* Production, distribution, and consumption: Ways that cigarette companies, intentionally and unintentionally, influence teen smoking.

RESOURCES

PRINT

* Haughton, Emma, The Right to Smoke? (Sea to Sea Publications, 2005). Grades 4-8.

* Morgan, Sally, Smoking (Raintree, 2002). Grades 6 & up.

WEB SITES

* Boyz II Men on teen smoking www.cdc.gov/tobacco /askboyz2men.htm

* Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids tobaccofreekids.org

* Smoking-related graphs www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/aag /aag_osh.htm

QUICK QUIZ

* In each sentence below, change the boldfaced word or phrase to another one that will make the statement correct.

11. Kids who smoke are more likely to become addicted to advertising than older smokers.--

12. One expert says that smoking is a way that kids use to conform.--

13. Monnia says a lot of her friends smoke because they are excited.--

14. The carcinogens in cigarettes make smokers vulnerable to diabetes.--

15. In 1998, the top U.S. tobacco companies and 46 states reached a settlement in a lawsuit over the taxes of tobacco-related illnesses.--

ANSWERS

11. nicotine

12. rebel

13. bored or short-sighted

14. lung cancer

15. medical costs

ANSWERS

16. A

17. C

18. A

19. B

20. A