According to recent research, it appears that since the 1990s there has been a sharp increase in the number of young smokers between the ages of 11 and 15 in both Italy and much of Europe.
The alarm was raised by a team of researchers involved in the ALEC (Ageing lungs in European cohorts) project, a study aimed at testing risk factors on respiratory diseases, paying particular attention to smoking. The scholars, coordinated by Professor Deborah Jarvis of the National heart and lung Institute at the influential Imperial College London, obtained such a high percentage from data on some 120,000 European citizens from 17 countries involved in six separate epidemiological studies conducted between 1970 and 2009. The researchers, through the number of nations and participants, obtained a rather detailed overview. In fact, they divided Europe into four parts (North, South, East and West), in which there are major differences.
Scientists are most concerned about the number of adolescent smokers, in fact from what was indicated by Alessandro Marcon, professor of the Department of Diagnostics and Health at the University of Verona, a +50% relative to very young smokers has been recorded.
“In the 11-15 age group – said the scholar – an increase in new smokers has been observed since 1990, with rates reaching 40 new smokers per 1,000 young people per year in Western Europe, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, and about 30 per 1,000 per year in Southern Europe: Italy, Spain and Portugal.”. For the 16-20 age group, however, there has been a decrease throughout Europe, except in the South, which includes Italy. For Marcon, it is crucial to reduce the number of young people exposed to nicotine addiction, as health problems such as cancer and cardiovascular disease also result.
