A survey conducted among junior high students in four Los Angeles high schools showed that parental smoking is one of the major influences of smoking among youth even before they turn the age of 13. Many anti-smoking agencies or movement have been on the fight to prevent the threat smokers pose on non-smokers based on the pollution it causes to the environment and the possible damage it does to the health of non-smokers. They usually strive to cut down on the growing number of involuntary smokers or what is commonly known as second hand smokers. However, when it comes to our non-smoking young ones, their constant exposure to adults who smoke do not only increase their risks of being second hand smokers but also has the powerful and almost inevitable effect of transforming these young second hand smokers into first hand smokers (full fledged and voluntary smokers).

This influence on children is especially the strongest when these adult smokers are not just the ones they see on the streets but also parents, big sisters and brothers, aunt, uncles who are close to them and whom they trust. These close and trusted adults should be refrained from smoking in the presence of innocent kids, taking them to the liquor or grocery stores to buy cigarettes or even leaving their cigarettes lying around where children can reach them. I have been a cashier for almost two years now and I will tell you it breaks my heart seeing parents bring their kids along with them to buy cigarettes like it was candy they are buying.

The warning label on cigarettes should also read “keep away from the reach and view of children”. Our kids shouldn’t grow up with the idea that smoking is good only to find out too late that it’s really a bad habit. Let’s join hands and make these written words a reality for all our children.