Smoking among secondary school students

Cultism has crept into the secondary school system and smoking is very real in most of our secondary schools these days. It is not only in the public schools; private and missionary school students are into it too. Pick up about 10 boys in a secondary school now, you will be surprised that about three or four smoke secretly. You will agree with me that most secondary schools have “school two”, where they perpetrate all sorts of evils.

Something is wrong somewhere. What has happened to our secondary schools? Who is damaging the future of these young ones systematically? What is really happening? Smoking has become a habit in our secondary schools and we are not reacting to it.

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I have discovered that most of these students do not know what they are doing and are victims of peer pressure. I think they need to be given information about the hazards related to their act so that they can change their attitude. Cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causes diseases and reduces the health of smokers in general.

Smoking causes about 90 per cent of all lung cancer deaths and about 80 per cent of all deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Smoking increases risk for death from all causes in men and women. Smokers are more likely than none smokers to develop heart disease, stroke and lung cancer, while smokers are at general risk for diseases that affect the heart and blood vessels (cardiovascular disease).

Research has also proved that smoking wears away proteins in the skin, rids it of Vitamin A and also restricts blood flow to the skin, causing it to have a yellowish, leathery and wrinkly appearance.

Again, smokers are twice likely to develop Psoriasis or Cutaneous squamous cell cancer, a skin disease that creates oozing, itching red patches all across the body, and a skin cancer that leaves scaly, red discharges all around the body respectively. Although smoking doesn’t cause melanoma, it does increase the chances of dying from the cancer.

Smoking will also weaken the immune system, making the body vulnerable to diseases such as Lupus erythematosus, which can cause hair loss, ulcerations in the mouth, as well as rashes on the face, scalp and hands.

We can agree that smoking does more evil than good to the body. It is apparent that smoking is not what a secondary school student should embrace in any manner. Any student that has a future that is bright should know that smoking now will diminish his/her chances of better future. The worst part of it is that, there are young girls that smoke too.

There is the need to create a platform for enlightenment so that youths will get adequate information to take the right decisions.

Balogun Oluwalonimi’Mayowa

08105190262.