Starting smoking

We all know that smoking brings ill health and causes many deaths. If smoking is so bad for you, you might wonder why people take it up at all.

Do you smoke? Why do you think you started smoking? Have some of your friends or family recently started smoking? Why do you think they started smoking?

There are a number of reasons why people begin to smoke. What keeps tobacco companies in business is the fact that new people - mostly young people - start smoking every day.

The older a person is before trying cigarettes the less likely they are to take it up. Most smokers begin while they are in their teens. Some might take it up when they start working, or go on to further education.

The behaviour of their peer group and role models can affect the behaviour of a young person. Having enough spare cash to afford to buy cigarettes is also a factor in whether or not people smoke.

Advertising tobacco products or seeing them in popular media, called product placement can also affect a person's decision to smoke.

Some young people think that smoking will calm their nerves and give them confidence. Others might feel that smoking makes them look and feel grown up. Some young people smoke because they think it helps them cope with stress, boredom, unhappiness, fear, anxiety and other problems.

Young women who are unhappy about their appearance often take up smoking because they believe it makes them more attractive. They may use smoking as a tool to control weight.

Young people may think that smoking only causes problems for old people. This is not true. And the bad news is that if you start smoking young, you are more likely to smoke heavily, and less likely to quit. This means that you are more likely to develop serious health problems from smoking.

References

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2. Taioli E, Wynder EL. Effect of the age at which smoking begins on frequency of smoking in adulthood. [Letter]. N Engl J Med 1991; 325: 968-969.
3. Hill D, Borland R. Adults' accounts of onset of regular smoking: influences of school, work and other settings. Public Health Reports 1991; 109: 181-185.
4. Alexander HM, Callcott R, Dobson AJ et al. Cigarette smoking and drug use in schoolchildren: IV - Factors associated with changes in smoking behaviour. International Journal of Epidemiology 1983; 12: 59-66.
5. Armstrong BK, Daube MM, Shean RE. A smoke-free Australia - our bicentenary resolution? [Editorial]. Med J Aust 1988; 149: 1-2.
6. US Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking: Cancer. A report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, Maryland: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office on Smoking and Health, 1982. DHHS Publication No (PHS) 82-50179. 
7. US Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking: Cardiovascular Disease. A report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, Maryland: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office on Smoking and Health, 1984. DHHS Publication No (PHS) 84-50204.
8. US Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking: Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease. A report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, Maryland: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office on Smoking and Health, 1984. DHHS Publication No (PHS) 84-50204.