Do you know someone who is addicted to cigarettes? Cigarette smoking is a habit that kills approximately a million people per year. This habit is being picked up by thousands of children each day. Smoking has become a growing trend in the youth because young boys and girls think that smoking is cool. Many of these young individuals never quit smoking throughout their life. With that being said, the latest problem, teen smoking can be stopped and prevented by educating the youth and preventing media pressure.
The amount of teens who smoke has increased dramatically over the past years. This is a problem because smoking can lead to serious health risks and diseases that can kill the individual. It is evident that smoking in the youth occurs when there is no supervision around, although lately it is becoming more and more common for youth to be smoking around their parents. This addiction probably started when they didn’t have any supervision to tell them not to do that. There are many different causes for this trend. The main reason young kids smoke is peer pressure. Every kid wants to be accepted by his peers and many feel the need to smoke so that other kids will like them. On the other hand, many kids are starting to smoke just out of curiosity. From this curiosity a child will begin to smoke and whether they like it or not will decide if they quit or not. Many kids do not quit after their first cigarette because many are afraid of what their peers will think of them. If all of the people you hang out with smoke then you would want to smoke because you don’t want to feel left out. As a result of not wanting to be left out you continue to smoke and you continue to harm your body until you quit.
One of the solutions to stop smoking would be to educate the youth and their parents. Schools could have programs that raise awareness of the dangers of smoking, such as increased risk of cancer, emphysema, and heart disease, available for their students. They could also hold parent assemblies to educate the parents of the dangers and how it affects their health and their children’s. Not only does smoking affect your health it also affects your appearance. Prolonged use of cigarettes can cause aging in the skin and yellow stains on your teeth. Finally, they could have