According to the United Nations Health Agency, the number of people dying each year from cancer, cardiovascular diseases and other conditions linked to smoking has continued to increase. It also projects, that the figure would stand at over one hundred million by the year 2020 with seventy per cent of the victims living in developing countries such as Nigeria.
While most of the adult smokers are quite aware of the consequences of their action, most teenagers indulge in the habit blindly with little or no knowledge of the health hazards associated with smoking. Some children begin to smoke right from their early ages. Many of them start smoking when they see others smoking; probably their parents or a close friend of the family, who may not only smoke in front of the children but, in some cases, send the children to buy for them.
Again, media influence, especially home movies, are contributing significantly to encouraging teenagers to embrace cigarette smoking through captivating and glamorous role acting with cigarettes. This often creates a false and mistaken world of prowess, comfort and satisfaction that easily lure unwary into experimentation. It is clear that survival of the tobacco industry depends upon each new generation picking up the habit of smoking, so teenagers are artfully targeted with mixed messages through advertising.
Peer group pressure is another factor that encourages teenagers to adopt smoking habit. In this case, smoking peer members often tease, mock and threaten non smoking members to imbibe the habit or risk being thrown out of the group. What is very disturbing about this development is that there are strong indications that our teenage girls are gradually drifting into secret smoking. They see it as a way of expressing their independence from parental influence, school control and establishing peer group identity. The danger of this secret smoking habit is that these young girls, who are yet to learn how to exert firm control on their emotional desires, often, in these interactions, develop more anti-social and harmful vices like lesbianism.
Others play into the hands of perverted men who sometimes lure them to group sex, which is an anathema in Africa and despicable in civilized society. Such unhealthy experience could inflict permanent psychological damage on the girls, distort their normal life and derail their future. Some of them may also be forced into prostitution in order to maintain the habit.
The same is true of the young boys who, in an attempt to experiment on smoking, become addicted. They are not only under financial pressure to sustain the habit but are also distracted from their academic work as they sneak from one bush or uncompleted building to another in an attempt to satisfy the smoking urge and avoid detection by teachers or family members.
Tobacco companies who sponsor fashion shows and music festivals are not helping matters either. They sometimes hand out free cigarettes without considering the ages of participants. Similarly, some local and foreign film producers are trying to create the impression that women smoking goes with the trend of modern fashion, which gives a woman an edge over others.
It is however encouraging that the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON and the government have taken a decisive stand against tobacco advertising. No doubt, the previous practice of allowing cigarette advertisers to engage in the double talk of convincing the public of the necessity of cigarettes in their life and then remind them briefly that the Federal Ministry of Health warns that smoking is dangerous to health, has proved most ineffective over the years.
However, it is necessary to ban sale of cigarettes within the school environment, while adult smokers should make effort not to smoke in front of children or send them to buy cigarettes. Parents should device effective monitoring strategy to ensure that their children get to school once they leave their homes as well as know the type of friends they keep. Teachers should also ensure that students remain in classes during school hours while activities of boarding students should be closely observed.
