Teens are Calloused Smokers

This fact was always a kind of shock for me: women in Italy smoke so much and in any situation - even in a little car with closed windows in presence of babies. I never could understand it, you know. As a teacher, maybe, I thought children have to receive the best we can give them - first of all the pure air. The mother can do anything she wants with her own health - she is an adult person, and she has to decide herself what way she wants to ruin her life. But a mother has to think about the health of her children.


«Бросая курить» на Яндекс.Фотках

The second argument for me was the way to cultivate the tobacco. My neighbors, here, in Italy, all cultivated tobacco for generations, and I could see the treatments needed to grow this plant. They use very hard poisons all the period of the growth because they can't have their yield at the end. The poisons are so that they need complete protection when they do these treatments. They wear something similar to space suite. I just used rarely the cigarettes but this fact made so that I never smoke more. ;-)))

Now, 20 years after I entered the soil of Italy for the first time, those children I've seen so little grew. The mothers and the grandmothers (those mothers of 20 years ago) continue to smoke. The schools are those who cry havoc. I received a mail about the new battle the schools of my zone begin now. Here are some dates they published:

Every year, 4 million persons die from smoke in the world. In Italy, the first cigarette is smoked at the age of 10-11 years. At 13, children are just calloused smokers. They smoke 4 cigarettes a day at least. 30% of scholars smoke at 15. Generally, the number of men-smokers decreases (and you can note there are not so many men smokers in the streets). But the number of women and children smokers is always growing.

Most interesting fact in this research is that great % of women and children smokers live in south of Italy. This means - in the poor part of it. North of Italy is not in so grave conditions.