• A no smoking signCigarette image by NJ from Fotolia.com
  
  "The majority of today's daily smokers began smoking before they were 18 years old," according to the American Lung Association. Though that may be a frightening statistic to parents, many people are trying to limit smoking in many ways. President Barack Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009, which allows the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate tobacco.
  
  

Parents Set the Example

• Many children who start smoking do so because their parents are smokers. Children naturally want to emulate their parents at a young age. An easy step to take to discourage children from smoking is to be a nonsmoker. After elementary school, peers play an increasingly dominate role in children's lives. Parents should talk to their children about how they feel about smoking and the health risks associated with smoking. Parents can encourage talking about smoking and ways to smartly say no to peer pressure, if children are asked to try smoking.
  
  

School Policy

• Schools should have anti-smoking policies on their grounds. Principles and administrators should not only follow a smoke-free lifestyle but support the efforts of those who are quitting. School administrators can bar advertising for smoking on school grounds, implement teacher education on the health risks of smoking and make smoking cessation programs available for staff and students. They can get students and parents involved in programs to support a nonsmoking school. Once a program is in place, routine assessment will ensure that the program is effective.
  
  

Government Policy

• States and communities can promote policies to prevent smoking--from passing laws that ban smoking in workplaces and restaurants to tobacco taxes to insurance coverage of smoking cessation programs. Because smoking is such an addictive habit, smokers need support to quit. States should fund programs that not only make smoking difficult--banning in restaurants--but that help those trying to quit. In 2010, the only state that is funding its smoking prevention program to the level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is North Dakota.