Breaking our 40 a day habit
11 May 2015
Ash Scotland discuss why we still have some way to go to prevent young people from taking up the tobacco habit and how youth work has a vital role to play.
Approximately 15,000 young people in Scotland start to smoke each year. That’s 40 a day. Almost two-thirds of smokers in the UK started to smoke when they were under the age of 18 and almost every smoker in the UK started before they were 24. Smokers start early.
The latest figures from the schools based SALSUS Survey show that smoking rates are just 2% for 13 year olds and 9% for 15 year olds. So does that mean that our job is now done in terms of encouraging children and young people to choose not to smoke? Not at all!
Whilst tobacco prevention messages are having a positive impact for younger teenagers, the uptake of smoking over the age of…