Studies show that teens become hooked on nicotine after smoking only a few cigarettes (as few as three a week). Girls become addicted faster than boys, sometimes in three weeks. Teen smokers get sick more often than teens who don’t smoke and may have smaller lungs and weaker hearts as well.
Children themselves do not have to smoke to be harmed by cigarette smoke. Exposure to second-hand smoke - in the home or car, for example - is a grave danger to children. Secondhand smoke contains twice the amount of tar (which gums up lungs and breathing passages) and five times more carbon monoxide (which reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood) than inhaled smoke. Children of smokers cough and wheeze more than other children, have reduced lung capacity, have bronchitis and pneumonia more often, are likely to suffer from asthma and frequently develop serious health problems with their heart and lungs when they grow up.