9-year-olds start smoking in UK's poorest town

An NHS study has found that children in Welsh town of Merthyr Tydfil are getting hooked on smoking at the age of nine.

There have also been cases where the kids started their tobacco habit at an age even lesser than that, the study has revealed, with many still in primary school, according to the Daily Mail, citing the report findings.

Younger children are becoming addicted to tobacco
The study was carried out by the Smoking Cessation Service at the town's Prince Charles Hospital after the medics noticed the high number of smoking-related illnesses in the former industrial town.

Among cases singled out in the report is one little boy who started smoking cigarettes at the age of just three, just because his family thought it was funny to give him fags.

“The average age of people starting to smoke came out as nine,” the Daily Mail quoted an anti-smoking service nurse Tracey Bowen, who is clinical nurse specialist at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr, as saying.

“Unfortunately it is realistic. I had a patient who started when he was between two and three.

“His grandparents gave him cigarettes because they thought it was funny and amusing.”

Anti-smoking campaigns have no effect
Mrs Bowen said while several anti-smoking organizations are working in schools to alert pupils about the dangerous effects of the habit, the trend among kids is increasing day by day.

“We have lots of good campaigns going on in schools, educational campaigns, but it does not seem to be stopping children trying smoking or starting to smoke,” she said.

Merthyr Tydfil - population 55,000 - has one of the UK’s lowest life expectancy rates, with the healthy life expectancy of just 58.8 years, which is three years less than people in earthquake-ravaged Haiti and eight years less than those in war-torn Iraq. As reported by the Daily Mail.

Reaction to the latest findings
In response to the latest shocking findings, smoking expert Professor Paul Aveyard of Birmingham University stated: “Childhood smoking is quite rare - less than one per cent of people under 11 smoke regularly - so this is unusual. It is worrying as you become more addicted to smoking the earlier you start. Starting younger is also associated with a higher risk of smoking-related diseases”.

A spokeswoman for anti-smoking charity ASH said: “This figure of an average of nine sounds very extreme and shocking. There is not an average figure for the whole of Britain although the Office for National Statistics found that 80 per cent of smokers had started by the age of 19. Another shocking figure was that 15 per cent of people had started smoking by the age of 15 across Britain.

‘You cannot underestimate how much damage smoking does as such an early age.’

More efforts are needed to raise awareness

According to a Quit spokeswoman, there is a dire need to educate these children as they had a major influence of their surroundings.

"We need to educate these children. At that age they are not going out and buying cigarettes themselves so the influence of their immediate environment is key."

Also Health Minister Edwina Hart, who yesterday visited Prince Charles Hospital, insisted to raise awareness among school-going children.

He said: “We have to continuously address the issue – the problem of young people smoking is not a new thing.

“We have been working with teachers trying to raise awareness of the issue in schools – education is the most important aspect of trying to change people’s lifestyles.

“The issue is a very generational one and I believe perhaps the only way of addressing it is by going out to young people and getting their thoughts.”