As the government moves to make tobacco companies to print pictorial and graphic warnings on the harmful effects of smoking on cigarette packets, health experts are worried over the younger generation getting addicted at an early age.
A survey conducted among 2,599 college students in Delhi, shows two per cent of them smoked their first cigarette before attaining even 10 years of age.
The survey, conducted among the students of three colleges in Delhi, also revealed that 61 per cent of them smoked for the first time while they were between 16 and 20 years of age.
"Though two per cent is not a very big number, but still it is happening," says Dr V K Vijayan, vice president of World Lung Foundation (South Asia), who led the survey.
"It was also revealed that 24 per cent boys and 4 per cent girls among the surveyed are addicted to smoking", he added.
The marginal age of teenage smokers has come down. "High exposure to smoking activities and tobacco products is the main reason behind this scenario," says Dr Rakesh Mahajan, child specialist and a member of WLF (SA).
Supporting Dr Mahajan's view, Dr Vijayan says, "More research is required in this area."
"Television is considerably responsible for the trend," says Dr Mahajan and feels that "TV should stop showing smoking and other tobacco usage as a glamorous activity."
The older generation, especially parents, addicted to smoking, has an important role in this context.
"The parents should be careful about the dangerous effects of passive smoking," says Dr Vijayan.
"That is one of the crucial reason behind the children often getting attracted to smoking," he says.
"Easy availability of tobacco products including cigarettes near educational institutions must be curbed if we want to deal with the situation," Dr G R Khatri, president of WLF (SA), recently said in Delhi participating in a anti-tobacco initiative.
He substantiated his opinion quoting the result of the survey carried out by the NGO showing in 38 kiosks out of total 184 in Delhi University Campus, tobacco products were available.
He also expressed his concern saying "tobacco companies are spending billions of dollars to target the youth."
Puffing habits can also result in reduction of IQ of human beings in the long run, the researchers say in a report published in British weekly New Scientist.
"There is no single system in the human body that is not affected by nicotine," says Dr Mahajan adding, "it is the most harmful ingredient, which enters the blood through smoking."
This danger increases manifold when it comes to smoking by girls.
"It may cause several disorder to their future pregnancy as well," he says.
"It may cause retardation of child growth, defective lungs and even asthma in the new born child," Dr Vijayan says.
"Today awareness among youth about the harmful effects of smoking and tobacco consumption is also on the rise," Dr Vijayan sounds optimistic.
"Mass awareness has the strength to fight the problem and that's what we are trying to create," he says.
A study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, can be a ray of hope.
Almost half of the smokers aged between 18 and 24, who were surveyed in a 2005 national health interview expressed their eagerness to stop smoking -- reveals the survey.
