Smoke in your eyes

 Sunday Mail, 28 October 2001
by Jeswant Kaur

An anti-smoking campaign in secondary schools reveals that students as young as eight have picked up cigarette smoking. To make matters worse, some schools refuse to admit that the problem exists among their students. JESWANT KAUR reports

IT is estimated that 50 Malaysian teenagers puff a cigarette for the first time each day. A study carried out by the Health Ministry in 1996 showed that those between the ages of 13 and 25 accounted for 35 per cent of the smokers in Malaysia.

Another study conducted in 1999 by the ministry in secondary schools in Selayang, Selangor, revealed that smoking among students, especially females aged 18 and below, was on the rise.

Under the anti-smoking regulation, students caught smoking within the school compound can be fined RM50 or risk being suspended. School principals and headmasters have been given the authority by the Education Ministry to enforce the no-smoking regulation in their respective schools.

Despite that, the problem of student-smokers persists.

Do students truly understand the harmful effects of nicotine? The Kuala Lumpur West Lions Club is conducting an anti-smoking campaign to educate students on the dangers of smoking. The campaign, themed Free From Smoking, is also supported by the Federal Territory Education Department. Eighteen secondary schools in the Klang Valley  are taking part in this campaign. Club director K. Balasupramaniam, who conducts the campaign, talks about smoking and the dangers that come with it.

"Students generally know that smoking is bad for health, but they have no idea how it can affect the body. This is what is worrying," he says.

The workshop targets students between the ages of eight and 16 but it is the teenagers between the ages of 13 and 14 that are of most concern to the club.

"Students as young as eight have picked up the smoking habit. But when we explain to them the dangers of smoking, they break down because they feel guilty about doing it without their parents  knowledge. However, this mentality changes when these children go to secondary schools. They start giving excuses to defend their smoking  habit." To date, 480 students have participated in the workshop.

Balasupramaniam's experience talking with the students showed that their decision to light a cigarette was heavily influenced by the media. "The media has done so much damage by indirectly encouraging the smoking habit. The advertisements give the message that smoking is part of a successful lifestyle and students believe this.

"Peer pressure is another factor that prompts students to take up smoking, especially among primary students. They are often bullied into buying cigarettes for their seniors." From the workshop, Balasupramaniam also found out that smoking is more prevalent among Chinese male students.

"There are cases of female smokers but unlike the male student-smokers, female students are more discreet when smoking." The Kuala Lumpur West Lions Club donated RM10,000 towards the campaign. However, funding is not an issue.

"Funding is not a problem. It is the participation and cooperation of the schools that is lacking. Several schools approached refused to participate in the campaign. They are afraid that their image would be tarnished if they admit that their students were known to  be smoking cigarettes.

"But how are we going to help these students if the problem is not recognised?" He says the majority of students who smoke cigarettes come from lower and middle-income families. These students are also not performing well academically and also have behavioural problems.

An analysis done by the National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, United States, showed that teenagers who smoke are less likely to get good grades and are more likely to drink alcohol. There is also a tendency for them to get drunk and try marijuana compared with students who do not smoke.

The New England Journal of Medicine says two-thirds of teenagers who make it past their second cigarette become habitual smokers. With 10 puffs per cigarette, one pack of cigarette reinforces the habit by 200 times.

 Source: NSTP e-Media
             2001-10-28

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