Smoking during pregnancy.

Young people and smoking

Young people who take up smoking at a very early age run a much greater risk of becoming addicted to the effects of nicotine. They may also find that, they are beginning a lifelong dependency on tobacco. In 1996, there were 1.7 million under age smokers in England. The younger a person starts to smoke, the more cigarettes they will smoke and that increases the risk of ill health and death. Once they start smoking, young people immediately put themselves at risk of suffering minor illnesses, such as coughing and shortness of breath. They are at greater risk from serious diseases such as coronary heart disease, lung cancer and chronic bronchitis in later life.  

Passive smoking

Passive smoking means breathing in other people’s cigarette smoke. This may be smoke from burning end of the cigarette (side stream smoke) or smoke inhaled and exhaled by the smoker (mainstream smoke). As this smoke is not being filtered, it is worse than smoking itself. Passive smoking can result in nose, throat, and eye irritation, headaches, Dizziness, chronic cough, and wheezing in babies. Conditions such as asthma and other allergies are usually made worse