May 30, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Women are dying for a smoke

LONDON, May 30, Graphic News: Women increasingly suffer tobacco-related diseases because more and more are smoking or are exposed to passive smoking, the World Health Organization has warned.

Globally, four times as many men as women are smokers, but as additional women take up the habit, tobacco-related diseases and deaths will rise dramatically unless governments act to discourage smoking, the U.N. health agency said in a 217-page report released in advance of the annual ÒWorld No-Tobacco DayÓ on Thursday.

ÒMost alarming,Êthe rates of smoking are increasing among youth and young women in several regions of the world,Ó WHO director-general Gro Harlem Bruntland said.

ÒWomen everywhere are exposed to second-hand smoke,Ó she said, noting that more than 60 percent of Asian men are smokers, meaning millions of women and children inhale polluted air.

The percentage of female smokers in industrialized nations is 15 percent, nearly twice as high as the 8 percent in developing countries. That does not take into account the women in India and other countries who chew tobacco, according to the report, ÒWomen and the Tobacco Epidemic.Ó

Overall, it said, 12 percent of women globally and 48 percent of men are smokers. By 2025, the percentage of women who smoke will be up to 20 percent in both industrialized and developing nations, the report estimated.

The increasing percentage of women who smoke is being driven, in part, by the increased spending power of women and girls and by the loosening of social and cultural constraints that had inhibited smoking by women in Muslim countries and in China.

The US$400 billion tobacco industry is exploiting those trends with well-financed Òalluring marketing campaignsÓ aimed at women, so precise that the colour red is often used because Òit connotes excitement, passion and strength, wealth and powerÓ and aids in product recall, the WHO report says.

Such marketing and promotion Òcleverly link the emancipation of women with smoking, using slogans similar to the ones used in Western countries decades ago, such as, ÔYouÕve come a long way, baby.ÕÓ



Other facts and statistics:

¥ Cigarettes are the only product that -- if used as intended -- will kill about one-half of the people who use them.

¥ Worldwide, there are only two major underlying causes of premature death that are increasing substantially: HIV/AIDS and tobacco.

¥ Approximately one half of all smokers die prematurely of a tobacco-related disease.

¥ 30 percent of cancer deaths are attributable to smoking and could be prevented.

¥ The most diagnosed cancer for men is prostate cancer and breast cancer for women, but lung cancer is the most deadly cancer for both genders.
/ENDS
Sources: WHO, Reuters, Associated Press