讓孩子吸煙就像讓他們窒息

A leading child health specialist has described the exposure of children to second-hand cigarette smoke and other electronic nicotine delivery devices, such as e-cigarettes and vapers, as similar to squeezing life out of children and taking the breath out of their lungs.

一位兒童健康專家介紹，兒童接觸二手煙或電子煙、吸煙機等電子尼古丁輸送裝置，就像將兒童的生命擠出體外，讓他們的肺部無法呼吸一樣難受。

Prof Anthony Westwood, a retired paediatrician from Red Cross Children’s Hospital and lecturer at the University of Cape Town's department of child and adolescent health, said exposing children to nicotine not only denied them a choice not to get addicted, but could also have devastating consequences to their developing brains.

紅十字會兒童醫(yī)院退休兒科醫(yī)師、開普敦大學兒童與青少年健康系講師安東尼·韋斯特伍德教授說，讓孩子接觸尼古丁不僅剝奪了他們不吸煙的選擇，而且可能對他們發(fā)育中的大腦造成毀滅性后果。

Addressing a panel of public health experts during a webinar on Tuesday, which discussed tobacco control legislation in SA ahead of world No Tobacco Day at the end of May, Westwood said early exposure to nicotine robbed children and adolescents of their future as they often become addicted and this was “extremely difficult to reverse”.

威斯特伍德在周二的網(wǎng)絡研討會上對一個公共衛(wèi)生專家小組發(fā)表講話時表示，過早接觸尼古丁會剝奪兒童和青少年的未來，因為他們經(jīng)常接觸，這種情況“極難扭轉”。該研討會在5月底世界無煙日之前在南非討論了煙草管制立法。

“How can we knowingly deny young people a choice by putting something in their brains when their brains aren’t fully mature and then saying today it was their choice?

“我們怎么能明知地否定年輕人的選擇，就是在他們的大腦還不完全成熟的時候，把一些東西放在腦子里，然后說今天是他們的選擇?

“Nicotine is one of the strongest of all substances that are addictive. It is highly addictive and toxic, and has potentially permanent effects on those young brains affecting attention, learning mood and impulse control.”

尼古丁是所有成癮物質中最強的一種。它具有高度的成癮性和毒性，對那些影響注意力、學習情緒和沖動控制的年輕大腦有潛在的永久性影響。”

Due to lack of regulation of certain tobacco and nicotine delivery devices, Westwood said it was not difficult for young people in SA to access nicotine. He said this was one of the reasons why the government should stop stalling and pass the new Tobacco Control Bill as soon as possible.

韋斯特伍德說，由于缺乏對某些煙草和尼古丁傳遞裝置的監(jiān)管，南非的年輕人接觸尼古丁并不困難。這也是政府應停止拖延，盡快通過新的控煙法案的原因之一。

Westwood said the damaging effects of nicotine to children’s lungs started long before babies of smoking parents are born and were sometimes deadly.

韋斯特伍德說，尼古丁對兒童肺的損害作用早在吸煙父母的嬰兒出生之前就開始，有時甚至致命。

“Children and young people have ended up in emergency units from these huge hits of nicotine, not just in an emotional way, but a physical way and potentially lethal way. A brain is developing and continues to develop and is not fully mature until the early and mid 20s.

“已經(jīng)有孩子和年輕人因尼古丁的傷害而被送進急救室，這種傷害不僅是情緒上的，而且是身體傷害，并且可能致命。正在發(fā)育并持續(xù)發(fā)展的大腦，直到20歲左右才完全成熟。”

“This is not acceptable. We need to make sure these kinds of things happening to growing lungs are not happening in our part of the world. This is what we already know from electronic nicotine delivery systems. Don’t experiment on SA’s children.

“這是不可接受的。我們需要確保這些肺部傷害不會發(fā)生在我們這個地區(qū)。我們已經(jīng)知道了電子煙的種種傷害，不要再讓南非的孩子以身試毒。”