Shocking Report Shows That 600 Children Start Smoking Every Day In The UK
An alarming new report has revealed that 600 children under the age of 16 years old are taking up smoking every day in the UK.
Experts used data from surveys conducted for the Health and Social Care Information Centre involving 6,500 young people in the UK and concluded that there were more than 200,000 new smokers between 2010 and 2011.
When broken down, the figures suggest that 67 children in London and 9 children in Birmingham start smoking every day.
Experts claim that the findings are shocking, especially as smoking has been identified as the most common cause of preventable death. Smoking before the age of 16 increases the risk of lung cancer, as well as a host of other forms of cancer, such as oral cancer, respiratory conditions, heart disease and gum disease.
The findings of the study have been published in the Thorax journal and experts from Imperial College London and Cancer Research UK are calling for more to be done to reduce child smoking and improve health education for younger people. They also highlighted the importance of tackling advertising and campaigns, which are aimed at young people and said that there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that young people are persuaded and influenced by targeted advertising and images of smoking on films and television programmes.
Chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, Dr Penny Woods, said that the figures seem shocking, but unfortunately are not a surprise for health experts.
Last week the Government revealed plans to introduce standardised packaging for all tobacco products, a move, which was supported by Alison Cox, from Cancer Research UK.
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