Adolescent children of parents who successfully quit smoking are also much less likely to smoke compared to those of parents who do smoke. Adults should be made aware of the impact of their own smoking behaviour on the future smoking behaviour of children. It is essential for adult smoking to be reduced and marginalized as part of a comprehensive strategy to decrease smoking among young people. Candy or chocolate cigarettes may be one of the first experiences a child has of imitating adult smoking behaviour, and these kinds of cigarettes deliver a very inappropriate message. The encouragement to imitate smoking as a desirable adult behaviour through the use of these confectionary products aimed specifically at children should be discouraged.
Some countries already have a ban on such products.
There are many environmental influences that help determine the likelihood that an adolescent will become susceptible and experiment with cigarettes. An adolescent is labelled as cognitively susceptible to smoke if she or he is not absolutely sure that she or he will not smoke a cigarette in a given situation. Those who develop a cognitive susceptibility are twice as likely to experiment with smoking than other adolescents. Once adolescents have experimented, approximately half continue to smoke and become addicted. An adolescent who thinks that the health problems of smoking can be alleviated, provided that you stop smoking before the age of 35, appears to be at much greater risk of experimentation.