Smoking gun

Neha Gulia,a 24-year-old from Delhi,has been smoking for eight years. It was considered cool in college, she says.

Neha Gulia,a 24-year-old from Delhi,has been smoking for eight years. It was considered cool in college, she says.Now,I am at a point where I smoke nearly 20 cigarettes a day and spend most of my time convincing my family and friends that it won8217;t kill me.

Ayesha Bhatia 32 blames her workplace for getting hooked. Everyone in my office smoked, she says. I tried nicotine gum and other remedies but nothing helped. I wish I could quit.

Women like Neha and Ayesha have become a major cause of concern for the World Health Organization WHO,which maintains that if women start smoking as much as men,it would be an unmitigated global public health disaster. According to conservative estimates by WHO,globally,around 20 per cent women smoke a whopping 250 million.

A release from the organisation says: Women are a major target for the tobacco industry,which needs to recruit new users to replace the nearly half of current users who will die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases.

And the tobacco industry works hard to reach that goal.

Companies aggressively promote female-only brands long,extra-slim,low-tar,light-coloured,mentholated,candy-flavored. The seductive images sold associate tobacco with vitality,slimness,emancipation,sophistication,and sexual allure,the WHO release points out. Especially troubling is the rising prevalence of tobacco use among girls. In a new report on Women and Health: Today8217;s evidence,tomorrow8217;s agenda, WHO states that there is evidence that tobacco advertising increasingly targets girls.

We have sufficient cause to worry because oral consumption as well as smoking has increased,especially among schoolgirls and particularly among better paid professionals, said Dr Srinath Reddy,President of Public Health Foundation of India PHFI.

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Data from 151 countries show that about 7 per cent of adolescent girls smoke as opposed to 12 per cent of adolescent boys. In some countries,almost as many girls smoke as boys. Experts maintain that in the past decade,consumption of tobacco in smoking and non-smoking forms has increased across all social strata.

According to Tobacco Atlas,among the woman smokers,22 per cent belong to high-resource countries and 9 per cent to low and middle-resource countries. For the high resource countries like Canada,the UK,and the US,these are shrinking figures. But in several South Asian countries,tobacco consumption among women is on the rise.