A classroom of children try smoking every day

A classroom of children is experimenting with smoking in Wales every day, a charity today warned.

Figures published by ASH Wales, ahead of a major conference on alcohol and tobacco, said 38 children who had never smoked before, are trying cigarettes daily.

The worrying figures come as Wales’ chief medical officer Dr Tony Jewell’s annual report welcomed a drop in the overall number of 15 and 16-year-olds who smoke in Wales.

But he has again highlighted smoking as a major public health issue and has called for the NHS and Welsh Government to ban smoking for staff and visitors on its grounds.

The Health Behaviours in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey found about 14,000 children and teenagers, aged 11 to 15, who have never smoked before try smoking a year in Wales. This is equivalent to 269 a week or 38 a day.

The survey also shows an estimated 1,000 children aged 10 to 11 tried smoking for the first time, but the number had more than doubled for 12 and 13-year-olds and trebled for 13 and 14-year-olds.

Carole Morgan-Jones, acting chief executive of ASH Wales, said: “These figures are worrying. We know young people progress quite quickly from experimenting with tobacco to regular use and as they get older they develop nicotine addiction.

“This is backed up by research we carried out in the summer of 2011 – we surveyed more than 1,000 young people in Wales and found a fifth of current smokers began smoking at 13.

“This is particularly concerning because early uptake of smoking is associated with heavier smoking patterns and a higher probability of becoming ill from a smoking-related disease in later life.

“It illustrates why prevention programmes aimed at young people are so important. Breaking the cycle of childhood addiction to tobacco products is necessary to reduce the ongoing health, economic and social problems caused by tobacco in Wales.”