Shock of Dorset's 3,500 children who smoke (From Thisisdorset)
When news happens send us your pictures, video and views. Text BE to 80360 or contact us by email
Shock of Dorset's 3,500 children who smoke
8:53am Wednesday 13th March 2013 in Latest
MORE than 3,500 Dorset children between the ages of 11 and 15 are risking their health by smoking, shocking figures have revealed.
Health experts are calling on the government to act, claiming that tobacco companies are deliberately targeting youngsters in a bid to recruit new smokers.
Dr Adrian Dawson, public health director for Bournemouth and Poole, said national quit campaigns such as today’s No Smoking Day had met with some success with adults.
But he added: “The trouble is that it’s a conveyor belt. Before you know it, you have another group coming through because they started smoking when they were kids.
“It’s less normal now to see adults lighting up. Over the last three or four years, the tobacco companies have been increasingly targeting youngsters. You can see packaging that now looks the size of iPods.
“They have glitter on the packs and use words like ‘cool’ and ‘slim’ that appeal to kids.”
Eight out of 10 adult smokers acquired their habit as children or teenagers. Research shows packaging with devices such as shiny holograms, bright colours and eye-catching images attract young people to certain brands.
Earlier this year, Smokefree South West led the launch of Plain Packs Protect, the first northern hemisphere campaign against the way tobacco companies market their products.
The campaign wants the UK to follow the lead of Australia, which recently banned designs and logos from tobacco products and beefed up health warnings.
Fiona Andrews, director of Smokefree South West said: “Most non-smokers have not looked at a cigarette pack in years and when they do many are astonished and horrified by how they now mimic those iconic possessions teenagers love best.”
Every year, another 340,000 children in the UK try smoking for the first time.
In Bournemouth and Poole an estimated 1,520 youngsters aged 11 to 15 smoke, and in the rest of Dorset a further 2,057.
A survey of young people in the south west found nearly 80 per cent thought selling cigarettes in plain packs would make it easier to smoke less or quit.
Pregnant mother of two Billie Dolling, 25, of Branksome, Poole, said: “For people who already smoke, it’s not going to make any difference. I’ve been smoking for about 10 years. I can’t even remember why I started. You just do it because everybody else does.”
Unemployed grandmother Marie Dolling, 49, of Poole said: “It probably wouldn’t have put me off. I was 15 when I started. These days people go for the cheaper cigarettes. I haven’t tried to give up, but I’m thinking of it because I suffer really badly with asthma.”
Vikki Highfield, 27, unemployed of Weymouth, said: “The pictures might put you off, but you ignore it if you are already a smoker. I think it’s to do with the circles you hang around in and peer pressure. I would be devastated if my son, who’s three now, started smoking.”
Mother of one Tasha Highfield, 23, said: “I took up smoking at 14. People start when they’re young because they think it’s cool. I’m fully aware it’s disgusting and gross and you end up smelling. If my daughter started smoking I would feel really angry.”
Comments(29)
casperella
says...
9:05am Wed 13 Mar 13
BournemouthMum
says...
9:39am Wed 13 Mar 13
These kids will regret it when they're older and realise how difficult it is to stop.
Baywolf
says...
9:40am Wed 13 Mar 13
bmthtony
says...
9:49am Wed 13 Mar 13
Always amazes me the numbers of them and how young some of them are. Most of them seem to use rolling tobacco!
uvox44
says...
9:54am Wed 13 Mar 13
" it is against the law to smoke in this area"! Can't blame them I guess when there is ZERO enforcement of the law (if indeed the signs are correct) - maybe an intrepid Echo reporter could find out the situation here- I'm sure it would be interesting to find out who is responsible for this dire , gloomy area and why they are shirking their duties?
Dont drop litter
says...
10:32am Wed 13 Mar 13
It is a shame that children still feel the need to take up smoking - it's not big and it's not clever - it's not even cool. Smoking is a passtime for deadbeats and pikeys.
They should save the money and buy something worthwhile.
Birthdaycake
says...
10:41am Wed 13 Mar 13
muscliffman
says...
10:47am Wed 13 Mar 13
mmmmmmm
says...
11:03am Wed 13 Mar 13
awsokend
says...
11:11am Wed 13 Mar 13
I love the smell of twist,
my great grandad smoked it before the war.
awsokend
says...
11:14am Wed 13 Mar 13
smoking at 3
bit young
l'anglais
says...
11:18am Wed 13 Mar 13
awsokend wrote:Exactly, nappies and fags can work out very pricey, prioritise one or the other.
ikki Highfield, 27, unemployed of Weymouth, said: “The pictures might put you off, but you ignore it if you are already a smoker. I think it’s to do with the circles you hang around in and peer pressure. I would be devastated if my son, who’s three now, started smoking.”
smoking at 3
bit young
retry69
says...
11:30am Wed 13 Mar 13
BournemouthMum
says...
12:01pm Wed 13 Mar 13
retry69 wrote:Sometimes parents smoking has the opposite effect. When my son sees my coughing and spluttering and getting bronchitis he is definitely determined never to smoke.
While parents continue to smoke while taking their children to school and stand outside the school gates smoking while waiting you really cannot blame the kids can you?
I think a lot of kids try it but some find it so abhorrent they never do it again, whereas others become addicted, it's the same with alcohol.
GAHmusic
says...
12:08pm Wed 13 Mar 13
retry69
says...
12:09pm Wed 13 Mar 13
BournemouthMum wrote:Lovely image!!!
retry69 wrote:Sometimes parents smoking has the opposite effect. When my son sees my coughing and spluttering and getting bronchitis he is definitely determined never to smoke.
While parents continue to smoke while taking their children to school and stand outside the school gates smoking while waiting you really cannot blame the kids can you?
I think a lot of kids try it but some find it so abhorrent they never do it again, whereas others become addicted, it's the same with alcohol.
ekimnoslen
says...
12:13pm Wed 13 Mar 13
l'anglais wrote:And presumably alcohol, hazardous sports and anything else with an element of risk that could be deemed potentially bad for your health..........!
Forget the civil liberties nutters and the freedom to harm oneself.
Ban smoking, problem solved.
joncon
says...
12:53pm Wed 13 Mar 13
He said to me, in genuinely sincere tones 'well done. You've got sense.'
Peer pressure really isnt worth succumbing to.
nosuchluck54
says...
1:06pm Wed 13 Mar 13
BournemouthMum wrote:There we go, sound sensible advice from a responsible parent, if you dont want your kids to smoke then light up a fag and cough your guts up in front of them, presumably as a deterrent for the effects of alcohol one gets violently drunk and pukes over ones offspring.A guide to modern parenting?
retry69 wrote:Sometimes parents smoking has the opposite effect. When my son sees my coughing and spluttering and getting bronchitis he is definitely determined never to smoke.
While parents continue to smoke while taking their children to school and stand outside the school gates smoking while waiting you really cannot blame the kids can you?
I think a lot of kids try it but some find it so abhorrent they never do it again, whereas others become addicted, it's the same with alcohol.
BournemouthMum
says...
1:16pm Wed 13 Mar 13
nosuchluck54 wrote:Unfortunately coughing comes with the territory of smoking, it isn't deliberate you know! I wish I'd never started, like so many other smokers I expect. I'm not currently smoking but the temptation will always be there. Best never to start in the first place.
BournemouthMum wrote:There we go, sound sensible advice from a responsible parent, if you dont want your kids to smoke then light up a fag and cough your guts up in front of them, presumably as a deterrent for the effects of alcohol one gets violently drunk and pukes over ones offspring.A guide to modern parenting?
retry69 wrote:Sometimes parents smoking has the opposite effect. When my son sees my coughing and spluttering and getting bronchitis he is definitely determined never to smoke.
While parents continue to smoke while taking their children to school and stand outside the school gates smoking while waiting you really cannot blame the kids can you?
I think a lot of kids try it but some find it so abhorrent they never do it again, whereas others become addicted, it's the same with alcohol.
speedy231278
says...
2:08pm Wed 13 Mar 13
BournemouthMum wrote:Did you teach him not to drink to excess by coming home plastered, knocking things over, and vomiting in the hallway? ;-)
retry69 wrote:Sometimes parents smoking has the opposite effect. When my son sees my coughing and spluttering and getting bronchitis he is definitely determined never to smoke.
While parents continue to smoke while taking their children to school and stand outside the school gates smoking while waiting you really cannot blame the kids can you?
I think a lot of kids try it but some find it so abhorrent they never do it again, whereas others become addicted, it's the same with alcohol.
l'anglais
says...
2:14pm Wed 13 Mar 13
ekimnoslen wrote:Life's a risk, but we have to get out of bed to live it.
l'anglais wrote:And presumably alcohol, hazardous sports and anything else with an element of risk that could be deemed potentially bad for your health..........!
Forget the civil liberties nutters and the freedom to harm oneself.
Ban smoking, problem solved.
Booze and fags puts us back in to bed, a hospital one.
live-and-let-live
says...
4:20pm Wed 13 Mar 13
billd766
says...
1:14am Thu 14 Mar 13
p next to the Conservative hall and opposite the Unique store on Wimborne road that sold Dominos at 4 for sixpence. They also sold cigarettes one at a time.
My Mum used to smoke Rhodian and my dad sometimes smoked a pipe.
I have successfully given up smoking 5 times and the last time was in 1970 so it IS possible. My mate also quit as he smoked Capstan Full Strength and his doctor gave him an easy choice, quit smoking or die young coughing your lungs up. He quit.
awsokend
says...
9:52am Thu 14 Mar 13
the most foul smelling smoke on earth.
The smell represented that which would occur by locking nine cats in a small bedsit for about a week with the small window closed
The pasha smoking stunted his growth
he was only 4' 9'' tall.
he shopped for his clothes in Mothercare.
His doctor told me had he not smoked
he would still be alive to day.
Bless him.
Dorset Logic
says...
10:33am Thu 14 Mar 13
Dorset Logic
says...
10:37am Thu 14 Mar 13
Oh I just did.
l'anglais
says...
11:36am Thu 14 Mar 13
Dorset Logic wrote:Don't tell me your intellectual reasoning you are a nuclear scientist?
Kids, if you want to p the chattering classes off - have a smoke, look above its working. If they tell you not to smoke have a smoke, they would have you in bed for 7pm, and up working at 5am, oh and don't start them on National Service. GO on have a **** lovely cool relaxing smokes. Wind em up and watch the blood pressure pop. If you can afford booze - Diamond white is a good option.
l'anglais says...
8:59am Wed 13 Mar 13
Ban smoking, problem solved.