Disturbing Facts About Teen Smoking

Every single person goes through a transitional period in life. Some are minor ones while others are major. One important transitional phase in a person's life is when they turn from a child into a teenager. It is an age of discovery and shaping one's personality and character. Unfortunately, it is also a very vulnerable time, and teenagers are very easily influenced by outside factors, both good and bad.

Among the many "bad" things that a teenager can engage in, such as drinking alcohol, experimenting with drugs, and engaging in promiscuous sexual activity, is smoking cigarettes. Teenagers can pick up on the habit for any number of reasons. They might take up on the habit because they were pressured to by their friends or felt they had something to prove because everyone else in their group was smoking. The habit can also be picked up because of stress or fear or done out of rebellion. Sometimes, there is no real good reason why the first cigarette is smoked.

The consequences of smoking at such an early age are devastating and life-altering. In fact, research has shown that teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 who smoke on a regular basis are more likely to experiment with drugs. Similarly, those same teenagers will continue their smoking habit well into their adult life. Studies have shown that a staggering and shocking 90 percent of adult smokers started off when they were teenagers and those who never planned to smoke for more than "just a few years" out of high school were still smoking 7 to 9 years later.

Starting at a young age when the body is still developing restricts the lungs from ever reaching their full, normal lung function. Smoking increases that likelihood that the adult will suffer from respiratory problems, asthma, bronchitis, and other ailments. Heavy coughing and heavier-than-normal phlegm production as well as a decreased physical fitness are just some of the other things that the teenager will feel.

The addiction to cigarettes is already difficult enough to conquer as an adult who started smoking as an adult, and even more so in an adult who started smoking when they were very young. Although many are well aware of the consequences of smoking cigarettes, approximately 3,000 more adolescents join the rankings of having used their first cigarette on a daily basis.

Sadly, those 3,000 adolescents who started today will ultimately result in 1,000 premature smoking-related deaths.