May 30, 2006 — Just one cigarette can leave children hooked for life, according to a new study of teenage smoking behavior.
Published in the current issue of the journal Tobacco Control, the research has found that the desire to smoke can lie dormant in children for three years or more after their first cigarette.
Jennifer Fidler, of the Cancer Research UK Health Behavior Unit at University College London and colleagues, tracked the smoking behavior of over 2,000 London school children.
The researchers started the survey when the students were 11 years old and ended it when they were 16.
The students provided saliva samples which were tested for cotinine, a chemical marker of nicotine.
The survey found that children who smoked just one cigarette by age 11 were more than twice as likely to start smoking regularly by age 14 as those who had never tried smoking.
The results held true irrespective of gender, ethnicity, social class or other influential factors such as whether the parents smoked.
"This is the first time we have been able to show that several years of non-smoking can pass and a ‘one time trier’ is still at risk," Fidler told Discovery News.
There are several possible explanations for this dormancy or "sleeper effect," the researcher said.
Pathways in the brain may become changed as a consequence of a single exposure to nicotine, increasing vulnerability to triggers later on such as stress, depression or the school environment.
"Another explanation is that potential barriers — such as how to hold a cigarette, how to smoke it or the fear of being caught by adults — have already been overcome," Fidler said
According to a worldwide report published last week in the Center for Disease's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, nearly two in ten students aged 13-15 years currently use cigarettes and/or some other form of tobacco.
Those numbers, the report said, "indicate the need to develop, implement, and evaluate effective, comprehensive tobacco-control programs."
Though more research needs to be done to fully understand the sleeper effect, the implications for prevention are clear.
"It is important to prevent children from trying even one single cigarette," said Fidler. "Moreover, prevention messages should be addressed to vulnerable, young teenagers who report having tried cigarettes in the past."
