Smoking stopped being fashionable when I was young but thousands of teenagers still do it ... knowing it kills

Now some might say that wasn’t unusual in the 1970s given the fact that our childhoods were filled with adults smoking in homes, on screen, in buses and even in the cinema. Tobacco advertising was rife with depictions of smoking being made out to be glamorous and the grown-up thing to do.

We as children were indoctrinated into smoking being the norm not the exception and it was definitely acceptable. However, for me smoking never appealed. Those of us of a certain age will recall some years later when the debates came to the fore in our childhoods, arguing whether it was right or not for cigarette packages to carry health warnings. And let's remember that this only came after decades of generations suffering from ill-health and deaths because of smoking. 

Public health education for children was hardly existent so it was no wonder that my friends at age 9 and ten thought that it wasn’t only alright to smoke but that it was the done thing to do, albeit discreetly for fear of getting in trouble with their mams and dads. Those of us who didn’t smoke thought they were numpties as it was obvious to us even at age 9 and ten and bereft of any public health awareness training, that their secret smoking was taking a toll on their health. They wheezed and were unable to keep up with the rest of us playing football and other physically energetic games.

Their anti-social and risky behaviours of ‘ nicking the odd cigarette’ from their parents we thought too, was leading them up the wrong path morally. The latter ethical stance being informed through our strict Irish Catholic upbringing and resultant fear that they were damning their souls to eternal damnation for stealing. Jumping forward now to the 21st century and being aware that society has greatly moved on with awareness and public health messages about the harms tobacco causes, including to young lungs, it is shocking to see that still children as young as 9 years of age are engaging in smoking and needing to be prescribed nicotine patches and gum on the NHS to help them quit smoking. According to the NHS data for 2022,  GPs issued more than 1,500 prescriptions for nicotine replacement aids in a year to children and young people.

As if these reported cases aren’t worrying enough and in contrast to smoking prevention and cessation advice from public health, we’ve seen in recent times a staff member at Bartley Green School in Birmingham  handing out a leaflet to children recommending the smoking habit to help with mental health issues. To help them 'calm down'!

In response to this action by the school member if staff, one social media user said: “You could not make it up. Somebody should be sacked without pay.”

Whilst one parent saw the funny side, saying: “You just can’t get the staff.”

Joking aside it is shocking that in our modern day and knowing through extensive research and health indices tracking that smoking is one of the biggest causes of death and illness in the UK, any school staff member could not only contemplate thinking about giving out such a leaflet to vulnerable and impressionable children but actually doing so.

Every year as the NHS statistics show, around 76,000 people in the UK die from smoking, with many more living with debilitating smoking-related illnesses. The provision of nicotine replacement aids is one intervention, running alongside educating children on the dangers of smoking, that the NHS supports. NHS officials say it is money well spent if it helps children engaging in smoking to kick the habit. It is highly disturbing that such interventions are needed. The use of cigarettes by children is running in tandem also with the ever increasing use of vapes by school aged children too. 

Our children’s health must be a major priority here in the UK for all agencies and all families - more needs to be done to raise public awareness of these habits and their impacts.  We as a nation cannot be complacent for the sake of the children and to save them from smoke and vape related illnesses now and for years to come.