The Increase in Teen Smoking
Teens being introduced to new things is inevitable. Whether it’s a new sport, person, group, place, or activity. Part of growing up is exploring these new parts of your life and deciding what you enjoy doing and what you’ll enjoy doing for the years to come. Unfortunately, not every teen makes the right decisions. When it comes to these bad decisions, smoking is among one of the most common.
Cigarettes have been around for decades and have been through many changes. At one point they were advertised and people were encouraged to buy them. Eventually, when more scientists began to study the effects of smoking, they were less encouraged. Smoking can lead to cancer, lung disease, heart disease, diabetes, and an increased risk of strokes. So why do so many kids in high school choose to ignore the warnings and do it anyway? Peer pressure is a huge factor in answering this question.
An article regarding teen smoking states, “If cigarette smoking continues at the current rate among youth in this country, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 will die early from a smoking-related illness. That’s about 1 of every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger who are alive today.” This just helps to show how many teens are truly being affected by starting this early. With the new rise in E-Cigarettes, smoking has become even more available to kids in high school. An article published by the CDC states that “In 2020, 19.6 percent of high school students (3.02 million) and 4.7 percent of middle school students (550,000) reported current e-cigarette use.” Of these students, 38.9 percent of the high school students and 20.0 percent of the middle school students reported using e-cigarettes on 20 or more of the past 30 days.
Although I do understand the idea behind trying new things as a teenager, there are many other things you can try that don’t involve ruining your body at a young age. The teen years are some of the most important years of your life when it comes to developing mentally and physically and starting smoking at such a young age will only have negative effects in the long term.
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Danny Whalen, Grade 12. Interests/hobbies include swimming, water polo, late-night drives with friends, going to the beach in the summer, playing pool,...
