The year 2010 brought the good news is that tobacco use among children and teens is dropping. Public awareness campaigns over the last 10 years designed to curb tobacco use by children are working. However, parents should continue to be vigilant. The CDC found that more than 25 percent of children 12 years and older were using tobacco regularly.
Lung cancer continues to be the number one cancer killer and 85 percent of those cases can be attributed to tobacco use. Because 80 percent of tobacco users begin before the age of 18, parents must continue to encourage children to live tobacco-free lives.
For those parents who are recreational cigarette smokers, teach by example and quit. It’s difficult, but adults who quit smoking are, through time, able to rollback their risk for heart disease and stroke, as well as lung, mouth, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas cancers (CDC).