'570 children a day' start smoking

[Northerner]

About 207,000 11 to 15-year-olds take up smoking every year in the UK, a charity has warned.

Cancer Research UK said government figures suggested 570 children smoked for the first time every day.

The charity urged the government to commit to plain, standardised packaging of tobacco, which is considered less appealing to youngsters.

The figures come from an annual Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People in England survey.

Results for smoking rates at each age group in 2011 were compared with smoking rates in the same group the year before and extrapolated to the UK population.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21874979

 

[Steff]

Gosh that is shocking figures,I worry my son will be pressured into it like I was but luckily he is so anti-smoking already, his father is an avid smoker who wont give up but he wont have him smoke near him everytime he goes out for a tab my C goes yuk.Hope it stays that way

 

[Northerner]

Gosh that is shocking figures,I worry my son will be pressured into it like I was but luckily he is so anti-smoking already, his father is an avid smoker who wont give up but he wont have him smoke near him everytime he goes out for a tab my C goes yuk.Hope it stays that way

Hope so Steff 🙂 My Dad was a heavy smoker and I had my first one aged 11, although I was probably 15 when I started smoking regularly. I'm surprised they can afford them these days - they are a lot more expensive than they were when I started, even taking into account inflation as there is a lot more tax on them now.

 

[Steff]

Hope so Steff 🙂 My Dad was a heavy smoker and I had my first one aged 11, although I was probably 15 when I started smoking regularly. I'm surprised they can afford them these days - they are a lot more expensive than they were when I started, even taking into account inflation as there is a lot more tax on them now.

Yup it is surprising, many time i have been going into my local newsagent and a group of kids have said can you get me 10 fags love, im like no your still in nappies literally.Parents these days dont have a clue gone are the days pocket money went on sweeties its now fags 😡