Children in Britain are beginning to smoke cigarettes as young as eleven. This is despite anti smoking campaigns designed to warn people of the negative effects of smoking. Once they begin at a young age many children get addicted to cigarettes and continue to smoke them into their adult years. The tar build up in their lungs over many years can cause them serious health issues later in life.
Jess Jarvis has been smoking since she was a teenager. She claimed to start out of interest, “I wanted to try it, so I use to nick them from my dad and his partner at the time.”
Pat Nurse began smoking at the age of eight, she is now fifty-three. “Smoking was the mark of something that adults did, and I could just walk into any shop and buy cigarettes.”
Pat doesn’t believe that children should begin smoking. “Children today are in a much better position because they’re protected.” However, she doesn’t believe the anti-smoking industry is doing a good job, “Children are learning more about smoking because of the anti-smoker industry. What does a child do when they see a “no smoking” sign? They ask ‘What is smoking?’
