Underage Smoking

Mentor: Mdm Wong Mui Lin

Class: 2-8 (2010)
Members: Samuel Phuar (24)
Tan Xing Huan (30)
Osbert Tan (31)
Brendan Siew (28)
Wayne Lim (16)

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 Content Page
1. Introduction
i. Why did we choose underage smoking?
ii. What we hope to achieve

2. Identifying a problem
i. Why is smoking and teenage smoking a problem

3. The problem
i. Why do teenage smoke?
ii. How is it affecting them/the society?
iii. Why do teenagers continue to smoke?

4. What is underage smoking exactly?

i. Definition of teenage smoking
ii. Causes of teenage smoking
a.Peer pressure
b. Stress
iii. Effects of smoking
a.Diseases
b. Nicotine
c.Addiction
iv. Why is teenage smoking more harmful?

5. Solutions
i. For organizations
a.Campaigns
b. Petitions
c.Education
ii. For individuals
a.Parent’s involvement
b. Posters
c.Social networking sites
d. Self-discipline
iii. What we did to help

6. Statistics
i. Results of our survey

7. Conclusion

8. Bibliography

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1. Introduction

1. i. Why did we choose Teenage Smoking?

About 30% of all teenagers smoke, and those smokers from as young as 18 can start to show
signs of developing heart diseases. About 70% of teenage smokers have wished that they did not start
smoking in the first place; eventually a third of new smokers will die from smoking related diseases.
Because of this, we have decided on this topic to find out more on why smoking is so harmful, and how
we can deal with it.

1. ii. What do we hope to achieve?

We hope to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking, and to motivate people to prevent
teenage smoking. We also want to try finding out the reason of why teenage smoking is on the rise and to
educate people on them, which could perhaps help not just teenagers, but adults as well, to quit smoking.

2. Identifying the Problem

2. i. Why is smoking and Teenage Smoking a problem?

Teenage smoking is a growing major problem all over the world. Smoking causes poisoning of
the body, which is all the more serious for youths for it will affect them badly later in life. Teenagers who
smoke are likely to develop diseases such as lung cancer much more easily than their non-smoking
peers. It will also cause other problems such as having bad breath, making them unappealing in the eyes
of others.

Fig. 1 Neck tumor due to smoking.

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3. The Problem

3.i. Why do teenagers smoke?

One of the main reasons of teenage smoking is because the teenager has large amounts of
stress. Smoking is known to many as a method of stress relief, hence a possible reason for teenagers to
try smoking. Influence from the family and friends can easily make a teenager start smoking. Parents are
usually treated as role models; a child would therefore be much more likely to smoke if their family
members smoke as well.

3. ii. How does it affect them/the society?

Smoking is generally seen as a vice, mainly due to the dangerous health risks it poses.
Teenagers who smoke would damage their bodies, and ruin the image they present to others. Smoking
also pollutes the environment, and second hand smoke from cigarettes can also cause problems for
those around the smoker. To quote from Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, “A cigarette is the only consumer
product which when used as directed kills its consumer.” This shows how dangerous cigarettes are and
why smoking should be prevented.

3. iii. Why do teenagers continue to smoke?

Firstly, the laws currently in place in Singapore are not strict enough. The charge for the first
offence is only $30, which is not enough to discourage teenagers from smoking.

Secondly, there are reasons (like those stated above) for teenagers to smoke that cannot be
dealt with simply by pressing fines on them. Some of them might require psychological treatment to help
quit smoking, and there is also the factor of addiction that might be a reason for teenagers to continue
smoking.

4. What is Teenage Smoking exactly?

4. i. Definition of Teenage Smoking

Teenage Smoking or under-aged smoking, is when any adolescent below the legal smoking age
of the country starts to smoke. Smoking is harmful to the health and therefore it is very important to
prevent teen smoking. But in order to do that, one must first understand why many teens start smoking in
the first place

4. ii. Causes of Teenage Smoking

a. Peer Pressure

This is one of the main reasons why teenagers start smoking. Many teenagers smoke because
they were influenced by their peers to smoke. In fact, many adults who smoke started smoking when they
were teenagers.

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 Fig. 2: It is clear from this graph that most teenage smokers start smoking due to influence from
people close to them.

b. Stress

Many teenagers state that they smoke to relieve their stress. As a student, they would naturally
feel stressed from schoolwork. The nicotine within cigarettes contains chemicals which relaxes the body
and gives them a rush. The teenagers might get addicted to it.

4. iii. Effects of Teenage Smoking

a. Cancer

Fig. 3: Lung cancer

Of all the different effects of smoking that form from

cancer, lung cancer is of the most severe. Lung cancer is one
of the most common types of cancers that occur all over the
world, with 90% of lung cancer deaths caused by smoking. As
a matter of fact, the earlier one begins smoking and the higher
the number of cigarettes one smokes, the higher the chances
of getting lung cancer. This is why teenage smoking is so
harmful to the smoker. Lung cancer can also affect one’s
breathing, which would cause different symptoms to occur,
such as coughing blood, wheezing and chest pain.

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 b. Ischemic Heart Disease

Ischemic Heart Disease, or reduced blood supply to the

heart, is another of the effects of smoking. Smoking increases the
blood pressure of a person, and hence, long term smokers suffer
from chronic high blood pressure, which increases their risk of
heart diseases. Also, smoking reduces the flow of the blood and
amount of oxygen reaching the heart which consequently results
in a heart attack.

c. Respiratory diseases

As the smoke inhaled goes into the lungs directly, a

person suffers from respiratory diseases as an immediate severe Fig. 4: It can be seen that lung cancer and
consequence of excess smoking. For example, chronic ischemic heart disease are the main
obstructive pulmonary disease causes the airways of a person’s causes of death from smoking.
lung to narrow, and thus limiting the amount of air that can enter
the lung. This condition becomes worse if a person has been
smoking for a long time as well.

d. Complications in pregnancy

Smoking is also one of the prominent causes of complications during pregnancy, which can
reduce the chances of pregnancy or having a normal childbirth. There are several consequences of
smoking while pregnant that can affect the health of the mother as well as the child. Sudden infant death
syndrome (SIDS) is one of the significant consequences of smoking during pregnancy. There are also
effects like miscarriage, premature birth, still birth, low birth weight and so on.

4. iv. Why is Teenage Smoking more harmful?

Teenage smoking is more harmful as many of the conditions stated above become worse over
time. The earlier one starts smoking, the more likely he is to develop these health problems. This is why
we are concentrating more on the youth for our project.

5. Solutions

5. i. For Organizations

Organizations refer to groups of people such as

the government. Organizations have the power to change
things, more than what an individual could do. Thus, if an
organisation agrees to support a certain campaign, it is
more likely to succeed as a message like "Stop Smoking"
would be more wide-spread than what a normal individual
can do.

a. Campaigns

Campaigns can be initiated by the government to

raise awareness of the dangers of smoking. For example,

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there are photos of diseased body parts and people placed on the cover of cigarette boxes to discourage
people from buying the cigarettes.

b. Petitions

Petitions can be set up by organizations to demand action from the government. However,
petitions require a large amount of people to work, and is therefore not that effective.

c. Education

Education can be implemented in schools to inform teenagers of the dangers of smoking. For
example, talks can be given to the students.

5 ii. For Individuals

a. Parent's Involvement

Parents are the role models for their children, whatever they do, their
children are sure to follow suit. Therefore, parents must set the right example for
their children as there is a high probability that their children will learn from their
actions. If parents were to observe that their children are committing something
that is immoral, parents should stop them and educate them on what is right and
what is wrong.

b. Posters

Posters are a good way to communicate a message to others through visual means, and can be
done by anybody. Posters can be put up on notice boards or void decks to inform people of the potential
dangers of teenage smoking.

(iv) Social Networking Sites

With the advancement in technology, more and more people are starting to use online social
networking sites such as Facebook. Making use of these websites, we can spread the word about how
teenage smoking is bad and what people can do to prevent it. An example would be to create a Facebook
group to spread awareness by getting people to join it.

(iv) Self-discipline

The above solutions are however still not as effective as the smoker's own will to stop smoking.
The above merely tells the smoker to stop smoking but it is only through the smoker's own self-discipline
and will to stop smoking will he completely stop smoking altogether. However, the above are still
important factors in making the smoker want to stop smoking. Therefore, all these solutions above must
be put together to make the smoker want to stop smoking and it is only through his own willpower will he
eventually stop smoking altogether.

5 iii. What we did to help

For our service learning, we have created a Facebook group to promote awareness of the
dangers of smoking. We have also created a few posters to do the same thing, which can be found at
http://ihaslaserz.glogster.com/teenage-smoking-introduction/.

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 6. Results of Survey

1. Have you ever tried smoking?

Ever tried Smoking:

2. When did you start smoking?

3. Were you influenced into smoking? If yes, by who?

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 4. If no, why did you start smoking?

5. Why don't you stop smoking?

7. Conclusion

In summary, teenage smoking is a problem that is rampant in Singapore and in the world. The
problem is escalating at a faster rate than we can stop it. Action is needed to prevent this grave problem.
To eradicate the problem of teenage smoking, everybody will need to work together to prevent teenage
smoking. After reviewing our research, we have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to completely
remove the problem of smoking, as there will always be some people who cannot stop smoking.
However, if everybody plays their part, we will be able to stop most of the problem.

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 8. Bibliography

i. General Infomation on Smoking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_Cancer/

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/risks-of-smoking.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/harmful-effects-of-smoking.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/consequences-of-smoking.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/lung-cancer.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/heart-disease.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/heart-attacks/

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/diseases-caused-by-smoking.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/lower-respiratory-infection.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/inflammation-of-the-lungs.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/lungs-diseases/

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/upper-respiratory-infections/

ii. Statistics & Articles

http://smj.sma.org.sg/2902/2902smj11.pd

http://smj.sma.org.sg/3103/3103a3.pdf

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EI05Ae02.html

http://www.cancer.org/downloads/TOB/Singapore.pdf

http://www.sma.org.sg/smj/4307/4307a2.pdf

http://forums.sgclub.com/singapore/new_anti_smoking_7727.html

http://www.singstat.gov.sg/

http://www.slideshare.net/hpb/student-health-survey-2006-hpb

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http://www.singstat.gov.sg/pubn/papers/people/ssnsep05-pg19-20.pdf

http://www.hpb.gov.sg/uploadedFiles/HPB_Online/Publications/student-health-survey-2006c.pdf

http://www.hpb.gov.sg/smokefree/article.aspx?id=432#

http://www.hpb.gov.sg/substanceabuse/article.aspx?id=420

http://www.hpb.gov.sg/smokefree/article.aspx?id=7056

http://biolife.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/singapore-students-health-survey-bikinis-lamp-post-or-science/

http://smj.sma.org.sg/3103/3103a3.pdf

http://teenadvice.about.com/od/drugsalcohol/a/facts_smoking.htm

http://www.hpb.gov.sg/uploadedFiles/HPB_Online/Publications/student-health-survey-2006c.pdf

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