No Smoking Among Children
You often see a group of young boys who, sneaking from adults, smoke in a deserted place. All this looks mysterious and romantic to them. But do these teenagers think about what harm they are doing to their health? We conducted a study of the reasons for smoking among schoolchildren and students based on a survey of 1,000 smokers in the city of Zhytomyr. And it turned out that some children start smoking at the age of 10-11. These are usually students in grades 5-6. When asked why they smoke, 50 percent of those surveyed said that they want to be like other schoolchildren, 40 percent said: “We want to feel new, curious, romantic,” 5 percent explained this by the desire to seem adults, independent, and only 5 percent still do not know the exact reason, saying: “It just is.” It turns out that the craving for smoking in children arises very early. By the time they graduate from high school, every young man has tried smoking a cigarette. In their third year of university, 70 percent of young men are already smoking. The number of girls who smoke at their desks has increased significantly. What motivates them to do this?
Of the girls surveyed, 50 percent answered: "It's fashionable, it's nice, we smoke because we want to please boys, to attract attention..." As a rule, girls start smoking in groups, at parties. They attract the attention of boys, seem "independent" and do not suspect that they are becoming "slaves" of tobacco addiction.
According to statistics from different countries of the world, now on our planet up to 60% of men and 20% of women systematically smoke, that is, 40% of the adult population of the world are smokers. As survey studies have shown, the main reason is curiosity, another is imitation of adults. In families where parents smoke, 50% of children become smokers, in families where they do not smoke, 25%.
We have to see how minors smoke in the entrances of houses. They pass one cigarette around, that is, they divide it among many. Short-term smoking creates a habit of nicotine. In its chemically pure form, nicotine is a transparent oily burning liquid. This is the taste that a smoker feels when he finishes a cigarette. In the filter of a cigarette, such an amount of nicotine can accumulate that is enough to kill a mouse.
Nicotine is a strong poison that acts mainly on the nervous system, digestion, as well as on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
And do all adults try to protect their children from this evil? It is necessary to reflect at a high level, in particular in the press, on radio, and on television, the eradication of this social evil, to promote a healthy lifestyle every day, and to show ways to solve the problem of child smoking. It is necessary to issue brochures under the heading: "No to child smoking!", to involve public organizations, commercial structures, and deputies of various levels in both the Verkhovna Rada and localities. It is necessary to look at this problem from another angle: to find an approach to a constructive solution to the problem of child smoking. If we all start working together under the slogan: "Health for All," as the charitable foundation under that name does, then the social problems of the development of the younger generation can be overcome. We must pay attention to preventing minors from accessing cigarettes. If we do not change public consciousness regarding the problems of selling cigarettes to minors, then the public evil of eradicating child smoking will do its dirty work in just a few years. Tobacco is a source of profit. Currently, a huge tobacco industry has been created, it is not shrinking, but growing, advertised, and causing enormous harm to people's health.