Fact: People Who Smoke Since A Young Age Are Harder To Quit, Children Must Be Protected

Smoker Illustration (Photo: Pexels)

JAKARTA - The negative impact of smoking has always been campaigned to reduce the risk. Children and adolescents should be protected from smoking, because the impact of nicotine addiction on them is stronger than adults.

Internal medicine specialist dr. The view of Tedi Adriyanto, M.Sc, Sp.PD, FINASIM from Gadjah Mada University explained that one of the chemical constituents in cigarettes is nicotine which can cause addiction.

"The earlier you start smoking, the harder it will be to stop. In addition, smoking addiction can be a gateway to trying other types of drugs," Padang said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, June 1.

Not only that but the younger a person starts smoking, the greater the risk of damage to the lungs and other organs such as blood vessels and heart.

The internal medicine specialist at Primaya Hospital Sukabumi also warned of the dangers of nicotine exposure to children's growth and development, namely intellectual and behavioral disorders to impaired concentration due to damage to the cerebral cortex.

Parents should be aware that smoking is not only bad for themselves, but also for others, including their children. A child can become a passive smoker when surrounded by smokers, whether at home, school, or playground.

"Even a child in the womb can be called a passive smoker if the mother smokes while pregnant," he said.

Children can also become passive smokers, namely those who inhale toxins from cigarette smoke exhaled by smokers, then stick to and contaminate objects or bodies.

The Ministry of Health has announced that as many as 5 million people quit smoking through a series of work programs that are echoed at the 2021 World Tobacco Heart commemoration which falls on May 31.

The prevalence of smokers in the age group of children 10-18 years, increased by 7.2 percent in 2013 to 9.1 in 2018.

Smoking habits contribute to the second largest percentage of death rates in Indonesia after hypertension, because smoking causes many non-communicable diseases that are closely related to smoking, such as cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, pulmonary disease, stroke, and other cancer-related diseases

In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that tobacco use kills more than 8 million people every year, consisting of 7 million active users of tobacco for cigarettes, while 1.2 million people are passive smokers.