One in five schoolchildren is a smoker

One-third of children who try smoking start in primary school, a study shows. One in five schoolchildren under 16 is a regular smoker, the survey also found, double the previous Department of Health estimates.

The report will alarm health campaigners who interviewed 6,500 schoolchildren aged 16 and under. The research showed the earlier children begin smoking, the more damaging the potential consequences in later life.

The study, in the latest edition of the British Medical Association's journal on tobacco misuse, will increase concerns about the long-term health risks of cancer and heart and lung disease faced by smokers who start at an early age. The report also indicates that children are more likely to experiment with cigarettes if they are placed in a class with a high proportion of young people who smoke.

The study was done by experts at the University of Nottingham's Respiratory Medicine Unit. Almost half of the children interviewed said they had tried smoking, and nearly one in five said they were regular smokers.

Of those who said they had tried smoking, nearly one-quarter tried cigarettes in the first year of secondary school but almost one-third admitted they had experimented before then.

The findings of the study will be used by the university in further research. This will focus on ways of helping young smokers, from giving up their habit to preventing children from starting. The Department of Health estimates that 10 per cent of children aged 11 to 15 smoke at least occasionally.

Research published several months ago showed that tobacco addiction among young people might be much more widespread than previously believed.

An American study revealed that children can become hooked on tobacco within just days of starting to smoke and may be addicted even from their first cigarette.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts medical school in Worcester, found 40 per cent of pupils over the age of 12 reported signs of addiction after just one puff.

Dr Andrew Molyneux, one of the authors of the Nottingham study, said intervention was effective only when the whole community was involved. "There is little evidence that targeting primary schoolchildren in their final year is effective unless their parents and shop owners are also involved," Dr Molyneux said.

His views are shared by campaign groups which say that one of the best ways of targeting children is to focus on adults so children are not tempted to copy the habits of their parents.

"Children should have the best start in life by not becoming passive smokers and not learning to smoke from their parents," a spokeswoman for ASH, the anti-smoking pressure group, said. "It's worrying that so many children are trying cigarettes, although this does not mean they will become regular smokers."

She added: "Despite reforms on cigarette advertising, children are still vulnerable when they buy sweets in corner shops."

The Government has pledged to crack down on tobacco advertising, although it will be four more years before sports such as motor racing have to obey the new rules.

The proportion of 14- and 15-year-old males who said they had tried cannabis jumped from 19 per cent in 1999 to 29 per cent in 2001, shows research by the Schools Health Education Unit. The SHEU, which questioned 15,881 children at 334 primary and secondary schools around the UK, said it was unclear whether this was a general trend or specific to the schools in the survey.