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The number of teenagers who smoke is growing rapidly, while the smoking is falling among adults. The smoking rate among teens had been falling since 2000 before turning upward again in 2005. Teen smoking is all the more serious because it is not only physically damaging it can also lead to other problems like drinking, sex and violence.
The Korean Association of Smoking and Health said Thursday that smoking by middle school boys dropped to 2.4 percent in 2004 from 7.4 percent in 2000, but rose to 5.3 percent in 2006. The rate increased from 0.9 percent in 2002 to 3.3 percent in 2006 for middle school girls, and from 2.4 percent to 5.2 percent for high school girls. For high school boys, the rate fell slightly from 23 percent in 1988 to 20.7 percent in 2006. In some particularly bad cases, the lungs of teenage smokers were found to be in as bad a condition as those of elderly people.
Teens who smoke show a greater tendency to take up drinking, have sex and commit suicide. According to the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), teens who smoke tend to drink four times and have sex 11 times as much as those who don't. The number of teens who have attempted to kill themselves is three times greater among those who smoke than among those who don't.
The government spends W30 billion (US$1=W918) annually on anti-smoking and health campaigns, but most of them target male adults. Only a tenth of the budget goes to programs for teens.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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