strong>Teens and Tobacco: A Deadly Combination

By Cassie Kauffman, MA, Health Education Specialist

Most parents would do anything to protect their children from harm, illness and certainly from death. This includes keeping them away from tobacco. Even parents who smoke cigarettes or use chewing tobacco don’t want to see their children doing the same. It is heartbreaking for a parent who has raised a child and tried to protect them from so many dangers see them start using tobacco. Unfortunately 90% of current adult tobacco users started using tobacco as a child under 18 years old and it only takes about four cigarettes on average to become addicted. What may start out as simple experimentation, rebellion and independence-seeking behavior in the form of tobacco often leads to a lifetime of addiction, disease, decreased quality of life and an early death, surely not what a parent wants for his or her child.

So what’s a parent to do? It’s important for parents to remember that adolescence is an awkward stage of life where teens try to build an identity, and social acceptance is tremendously important. One tool that can help a parent is called social norming. Teens often overestimate the number of people who smoke or use tobacco. Point out that for example in Colorado 83% of the population does NOT smoke and that it is not socially acceptable to smoke as seen with Smokefree Colorado where there is no smoking allowed in public buildings and worksites.

Part of the reason teens may overestimate the number who smoke has to do with marketing and product placement in advertisements, events, and movies. A parent should point out the smoking in movies for example and remind the teens that the tobacco industry knows that movies are a great way to get kids to think it is “cool” to smoke when they see a popular actor smoking. A 2006 survey by the University of California, San Francisco found that 75% of movies showed tobacco use on screen (including about 40% of G rated movies), more than at any time since the mid 1950’s! This and other studies have also found a direct correlation between whether they watch smoking on screen by their favorite actors and whether teens will smoke themselves. Therefore, parents can also support the movement toward regulating tobacco depiction on screen such as classifying it as drug use in determining ratings and supporting the movie industry in removing tobacco use on screen as Disney did in July.

Because teens are so mindful of others’ opinions and want to feel they are “adult” the tobacco industry consistently promotes the message that tobacco use is an “adult activity” making it seem exciting to teens and a way to prove their “adultness”. One way to counter this is to remind the teens that the tobacco industry is playing them the fool; that the tobacco companies don’t care about them except to get their money. After all, they are selling the only legal product that kills even when used in moderation or as directed. Also point out that tobacco really isn’t even an adult activity because very few adults use it and about 85% of those who do wish they didn’t.

Probably the most effective way to keep kids from tobacco is making it too expensive to try. Teens are very price sensitive because they generally don’t have much of an income. Cigarette and tobacco taxes have a dual purpose of making access difficult for teens and funding programs aimed at eliminating the tobacco burden on the community.

Overall, the most important thing a parent can to do help keep their kids off tobacco is to be consistent in messages against tobacco and in their support of the tobacco control movement. Remember, tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the world killing more people every day than car accidents, fires, suicides, homicides, AIDS, alcohol, and other drugs COMBINED; it is a matter of life and death.

For more information about tobacco issues, contact Cassie Kauffman, MA with the Weld County Tobacco Program at (970) 304-6470 x2123 or ckauffman@co.weld.co.us.

Points to consider:

Never allow smoking or chewing tobacco in your car or home. This sends a clear tobacco-free message to children and protects them from the dangers of secondhand smoke exposure. A smoke-free home makes children less likely to smoke, even if their parents smoke.

If you smoke or use tobacco, stop. Call the Colorado Quitline at 1-800-QUIT-NOW for free nicotine therapy patches or gum and coaching on how to quit. Online help is also available on www.coquitline.org. If you have difficulty quitting explain to the kids that this is addiction. Kids greatly underestimate addiction. Keep them involved in your quit attempts. Talk frankly about what you are going through and that you would never wish this on them.

Establish a money saving program with your kids to teach financial responsibility and the costs of a deadly addiction like tobacco. Start out by adding the cost of a can of chew or cigarettes every day to a jar and watch it grow. The money will really add up fast. Discuss ways that money can be better used for investing, saving, charity or buying something that will be cherished. Explain that the tobacco companies keep targeting young people because they know that over the course of a new customer's life they will make all that money and more.

Emphasize the immediate health and physical appearance effects such as yellow teeth and fingernails, brittle hair, early wrinkles, coughing, infections and bad breath. They are more likely to respond to the immediate “gross” results that they can see today than the long-term diseases that develop over time.