Fact sheet for world no tobacco day 2010

20/06/2010

The World Health Organization (WHO) called on countries to protect women and girls from efforts by the tobacco industry to induce them to start smoking.

The organization released data that smoking and chewing of tobacco among women and girls is increasing in Asia and the Pacific. It is estimated that more than 8 percent of girls between 13 and 15 years of age, or around 4.5 million girls, are using tobacco products.

In observation of World No Tobacco Day this year, WHO called for comprehensive bans on advertising, promotion and sponsorship to protect women and girls from deceptive messages that portray smoking as glamorous or fashionable.

Worldwide, of more than 600,000 deaths caused every year by second-hand smoke, 64 percent occur among women.

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control calls for gender-specific tobacco control strategies and the full participation of women in tobacco control measures.

FACT SHEET FOR WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY 2010

Empower and protect women from tobacco marketing and smoke

Women are at great risk

Tobacco companies are spending heavily on alluring marketing campaigns that target women.

Women are gaining spending power and independence. Therefore, they are more able to afford cigarettes and feel freer to use them.

Tobacco companies are investing heavily in the low- and middle- income countries, where most potential new female users live.

Many countries do not do enough to protect their people from second- hand smoke.

Many women do not know about the harm done by second-hand smoke, or feel as if they have no right to complain.

Tobacco use and premature deaths of women

Women comprise 20 percent of the world's 1 billion smokers.

Of the more than 5 million people who die each year from tobacco use, approximately 1.5 million are women.

If current conditions continue, tobacco use will kill 8 million people each year by 2030, of whom 2.5 million will be women.

Three-quarters of these deaths would be women in low- and middle-income countries. Each of these deaths would have been avoidable.

Disturbing trends on tobacco use among women and girls in the Western Pacific Region

Based on the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, it is estimated that 8.4 percent of girls aged 13-15 years, or around 4.7 million girls, in the Western Pacific Region use tobacco products.

In New Zealand, smoking among girls ages 13-15 years old increased from 23.9 percent in 2007 to 39.9 percent in 2009.

In Cambodia, according to a nationwide survey in 2005, 17 percent of women and 1 percent of men chewed tobacco.

It is estimated that more than a half a million middle-aged and older women in Cambodia chew tobacco.

The high prevalence of tobacco chewing is linked to the belief that this alleviates morning sickness among pregnant women.

In Palau, 53.7 percent of girls aged 13-15 currently use other tobacco products, including chewing betel nut with cigarettes, increasing the risk of oral cancer.

In Vietnam, it is reported that two-thirds of all women are exposed to second-hand smoke at home.

In China, where one-third of the world's adult smokers live and where more than 97 percent of those smokers are men, more than half of the women of reproductive age are regularly exposed to second-hand smoke, which puts them and their unborn babies at risk.

The epidemic of tobacco use manifests itself differently in women than in men

The tobacco industry dupes many women into believing that smoking is a sign of liberation, and many women wrongly view smoking as a good way of keeping slim.

Women who smoke are more likely to experience infertility and delays in conceiving than those who do not. Maternal smoking during pregnancy increases the risks of premature delivery, stillbirth and newborn death and may cause a reduction in breast milk.

Evidence shows that women develop lung cancer with lower levels of smoking compared to men, and are more at risk of contracting the (more aggressive) small cell lung cancer.

Women who smoke are at increased risk of developing potentially fatal chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

Smoking increases women's risks for many cancers, including cancers of the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, larynx, bladder, pancreas, kidney and cervix, as well as for acute myeloid leukemia. There is a possible link between active smoking and premenopausal breast cancer.

Many tobacco control strategies ignore women who chew tobacco.

Second-hand smoke is a major health risk for women at home and in the workplace.

In many countries, vastly more men smoke than women, and many of those countries fail to protect nonsmokers from exposure to indoor second-hand smoke adequately.

In many countries, women are powerless to protect themselves, and their children, from second-hand smoke.

Tobacco industry marketing endangers women

Advertisements falsely link tobacco use with female beauty, empower-ment and health. In fact, addiction to tobacco enslaves and disfigures women.

Advertisements lure women with such misleading identifiers as "lite/light" or "low-tar". A higher proportion of women than men smoke "lite/light" cigarettes, often in the mistaken belief that "lite/light" means "safer".

Source: World Health Organization