Tobacco Use among Czech Kids
The rates of tobacco smoking among teenagers are still higher than those of adults, explained researchers.
In general, children and teens are easier targets for the Tobacco Industry. They’re often influenced by TV, movies, advertising, and by what their friends do and say. They don’t realize what a struggle it can be to quit, and having cancer, emphysema, blindness, or impotence may not seem like real concerns. Children and teens don’t think much about future health outcomes.
For example, Czech children are among the youths that smoke the highest number of cigarettes in the world.
Statistics show that nearly one quarter of 15-year-old Czech girls (23 percent) smoke regularly, which is the second highest number in the world, with the neighboring Austria being the worst. And among 15-year old Czech boys one fifth (20 percent) smoke regularly. The situation is worse only in Austria, Finland and Hungary.
But in Sweden and the United States, the number of smokers among children is three times lower than in the Czech Republic, the survey showed.
Zdenek Dienstbier, head of the Cancer League organization, said: “The Czechs have figured in top positions in similar surveys for a long time. This is a result of the general atmosphere in society that still does not consider smoking among youths a serious problem”.
According to Dienstbier, neither the regulation of tobacco advertising nor other restrictive measures would markedly ameliorate the situation.
The OECD survey also focused on children and alcohol.
One-fifth of Czech girls and one-fourth of boys admitted that they were drunk a few times, which is more or less the average result in the 35 developed countries included in the survey.
Research showed also that teen tobacco users are more likely to use alcohol and illegal drugs than are non-users. Cigarette smokers are also more likely to get into fights, carry weapons, attempt suicide, suffer from mental health problems such as depression, and engage in high-risk sexual behaviors.
