If you catch your teen smoking or vaping, avoid threats and ultimatums. Ask a few questions and find out why your child is smoking or vaping; they may want to be accepted by a peer group or want your attention. Talk about what changes can be made in your teen's life to help them stop smoking.
Quit Smoking
Cigarette smoking during childhood and adolescence causes significant health problems among young people, including an increase in the number and severity of respiratory illnesses, decreased physical fitness and potential effects on lung growth and function.
You may tell them that under no circumstances is smoking allowed in your home, under your roof. You may also inform them that if you catch them smoking in their room or in the house, you are going to confiscate the smokes and adjust their curfew so they have to come home earlier on the weekends.
In children, secondhand smoke exposure can cause respiratory infections, ear infections, and asthma attacks. In babies, secondhand smoke can cause sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
The effects on children are not just physical they are also mental. A study in Britain and Brazil showed that moms that smoked may trigger behavioral problems in their children[2]. It's shocking to think that a choice to smoke as a parent can affect your child, but it does.
Chemicals and toxins in commercial tobacco smoke
Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis, middle ear disease, more frequent and severe asthma, respiratory symptoms, and slowed lung growth.
Depending upon weather conditions and air flow, tobacco smoke can be detected at distances between 25-30 feet away.
The Surgeon General has concluded that the only way to fully protect yourself and your loved ones from the dangers of secondhand smoke is through 100% smoke-free environments. Opening a window, sitting in a separate area, or using ventilation, air conditioning, or a fan cannot eliminate secondhand smoke exposure.
Exposure to nicotine can have lasting effects on adolescent brain develop- ment. Cigarette smoking also causes children and teens to be short of breath and to have less stamina, both of which can affect athletic performance and other physically active pursuits. reduced lung growth; and early cardiovascular damage.
Retailers in the United States must not sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21.
By Age. Current cigarette smoking was highest among people aged 25–44 years and 45–64 years. Current cigarette smoking was lowest among people aged 18-24 years.
Peer pressure—their friends encourage them to try cigarettes and to keep smoking. They see smoking as a way of rebelling and showing independence. They think that everyone else is smoking and that they should, too. The tobacco industry has used clever marketing tactics to specifically target teenagers.
Tobacco use is normally established in the teenage years, with the most rapid increase occurring at the age of 14–15 years, and the years between 10 and 13 seem to be a particularly sensitive period to initiate a smoking debut [1]. Daily smoking is associated with initiation of smoking before the age of 15 years [2].
It lingers
Second-hand smoke lingers for up to 5 hours after your last cigarette. Even if you smoke when they're at school or out playing, second-hand smoke will still be around, waiting for your kids to breathe it in when they get home.
1: Vaping is less harmful than smoking, but it's still not safe. E-cigarettes heat nicotine (extracted from tobacco), flavorings and other chemicals to create an aerosol that you inhale. Regular tobacco cigarettes contain 7,000 chemicals, many of which are toxic.
Smoke from one cigarette can stay in a room for hours. Opening windows and using fans, air conditioners, air purifiers, air fresheners, and ventilation systems does not get rid of secondhand smoke. Smoking in another room like a bathroom or bedroom will not protect children and others from secondhand smoke.
There has been no determination of how long the harmful effects of secondhand smoke lingers in the air. Depending on a room's ventilation, the smell of tobacco smoke can linger for some time. If tobacco smoke is in the air, it can and does present potential health problems to all but particularly children.
Most people with smoke inhalation will be assessed in an emergency department with the majority making a full recovery without any long-term adverse effects. However, some people exposed to smoke can take up to 24—36 hours to develop signs of serious lung irritation.
The authors found that 13 percent of adolescents whose parent never smoked said they had ever smoked at least one cigarette. By comparison, 38 percent of teens whose parent was dependent on nicotine had smoked at least one cigarette.