Children following smoking/non-smoking habits of their parents Essay

In such a context, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the impact of passive smoke on non-smokers may have not only direct physical effects on non-smokers, especially children, but it also may have a long-run psychological effects and lead to the development of negative habits. What is meant here is the fact that children can follow the lead of their smoking parents and start smoking too. Specialists point out that children who are exposed to smokers in their household are three times more likely to initiate smoking themselves, the number of potential smokers increases with increasing number of children in the family (Shiva & Padyab, 2008). In fact, children turn out to be exposed to the double impact of passive smoke. On the one hand, they develop health problems provoked by the impact of passive smoke on their health. On the other hand, they perceive smoking as a norm because their parents smoke. Therefore, they believe there is nothing wrong if they start smoking too. As a result, they start smoking and enhance the negative impact of smoking on their health because they transform passive smoking into active smoking. In such a way, they develop negative habits and undermine their health.
In such a situation, habits children learn from parents may be as dangerous as the negative impact of passive smoke on their health. At the same time, the habits of parents are very important because, if parents are accustomed to smoke within the household or in the room, where children spend their time, they expose their children to the extremely high risk of developing different health problems. In contrast, if parents smoke outdoors, they decrease the risk of the development of health problems in their children. In fact, the place, where people smoke may affect the impact of passive smoke on non-smokers. What is meant here is the fact that smoking indoors is much more dangerous than smoking outdoors. Specialists (Pirie 2008) argue that indoors smoking increases the risk of the development of health problems in non-smokers more significantly, whereas the risk of the development of various health problems associated with passive smoke is lower compared to passive smoke indoors. In such a way, if parents, for instance, develop the habit to smoke outdoors, they can decrease the risk of the development of health problems in their children.