Women & Smoking

Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the country, contributing substantially to deaths from cancer, lung disease, heart disease, and other causes. Smoking rates among women have decreased 35% since their peak in 1965. Nonetheless, 22.3 million adult women were still current smokers in 1997.

The addiction, which was earlier shifted to men, is now turning over to women’s. The study of WHO indicates that about eight% of women in developing countries and fifteen percent of women in industrialized countries smoke cigarettes.

The smoking mania in women has now increased widely. In today’s 21st century, women are no longer a backward human. They have learnt to walk together with men in our male dominated society. Realizing their potential of this growing market tobacco industries have been making special cigarettes for women using seductive but false feeling of sophistication and sexual allure.

Pregnancy and smoking
Smoking during pregnancies, substantially increases health risks to the developing baby. It is the leading cause of premature births, and greatly increases the risk of mental problems, miscarriage and low birth weight, and other serious health conditions in infants. The 1997 National Household Survey on drug Abuse indicated that 19.9 percent of pregnant smoked cigarettes, with the highest rates among women in their first time pregnancies. Chemicals in tobacco are reached to the fetus through a blood stream. These harmful and life taking chemicals harm the women and her baby adversely. The statistics also indicate that some women’s avoid smoking at the time of pregnancy and start again as the baby is born. But it is important to note that when you smoke the chemicals present in tobacco mix with your blood and if you try to avoid smoking for 9 months hoping to expect a healthy baby you are making a fool of yourself. Children who are exposed to second hand cigarette smoke are at increased risk of sudden Infant death syndrome causing ear infections and several other respiratory diseases such as lung cancer, bronchitis, asthma.

The most important thing here is that women smokers have around 72 percent of the fertility of non-smokers. The studies have also proven that women smokers have a great problem in fertilization and implantation of the zygote.

Teenage smoking also effects you menstrual cycle. It can cause early menopause in your young age. It is seen that smoking women get menopause two three years early then non-smoking women. This is due to the fact of large amount of harmful chemicals present in cigarette, which affects your reproductive system. However in older women who start smoking after their menopausal stages face the problem of hip fractures and making their bones weak and unhealthy.

It is important to note that health problems in women related to smoking are very serious. It is seen that smoking causes more breathing problems in women as compared to men. Researches tell us that women smokers reported higher rates of respiratory problems than men  with prevalence of asthma in women. The asthma rate was more than one in ten among those women smoking 20 cigarettes a day. Female smokers also face the problem of brittle bones and aging skin. Yes it is seen that women smokers get wrinkles on their face and they start looking old at an early age.

The effect of smoking on women’s cardiovascular health begins to show more sex differences. Smoking effects the heart of women immensely this is realized later in life. Among current female smokers the chance of breast cancer is also increased.
There are about 1.1 billion of tobacco consumers in the world today. The World Health Organization indicates that by 2025 the number of smokers would increase to 1.64 billion looking at the increase-taking place in developing countries. Four million people in the world die every year from tobacco related diseases.

With all these influences cessation for women is not an easy task. While in developed countries women are provided with cessation programs but such programs were not that much effective in providing complete support to the smoking women. WHO and other such organizations are trying their best to help women smokers and aware them of the harmful effects that can ruin their life and body.