Smoking a weighty issue in Malaysia

Smoking among teenage girls is on the rise in Malaysia and one of the main reasons is that they want to lose weight, according to a story in The Star quoting the Malaysian Association for Adolescent Health vice president Dr. N. Thiyagar.

Two of the other main contributing factors, added Thiyagar, were peer pressure and growing up in an environment where parents and relatives smoked.

Thiyagar, who is also the Malaysian Pediatric Association president, said teenagers were advised to exercise regularly to maintain an ideal body weight.

The majority of Malaysian smokers picked up the habit during their teenage years, and studies had shown that children as young as 10 years old had started smoking.

Thiyagar, who, according to the Star story, believes that smoking usually leads to illicit drug use and alcohol consumption, said studies had shown that the best way to encourage teenagers to quit smoking was through school-based programs.

Counselors dealing directly with teenagers who smoked and group activities seemed to be effective methods.

Although schoolchildren were not interested in the long-term effects of smoking, they were concerned about the short-term results; so that they immediately took notice when a counselor told them that they could suffer respiratory problems or their studies and sports activities could be affected.

Community-based programs where teenagers got involved in volunteer activities could also deter them from picking up the smoking habit by keeping them occupied.

But he said it was equally important to advise parents and other family members to quit smoking so that teenagers did not get the impression that smoking was cool.