women and smoking

the Surgeon General Highlights the Health Impact of Smoking Among U.S. Women and Girls

Women make up Thirty nine percent of all smoking-related deaths every year in the United States.

This percentage has more than doubled since 1965, according to a report on women and smoking released by the Surgeon General. The report concludes that the increased likelihood of lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and reproductive health problems among women smokers makes tobacco use a serious women’s health issue.

The ever increasing advertising by tobacco companies has halted the progress of smoking cessation programs by women, and recent increases in smoking among teenage girls threatens to negate any progress that has already been made in the last 30 years, he said.

Women and Smoking: A Report from the Surgeon General summarizes the patterns of tobacco use among women, factors associated with starting and continuing to smoke, the health consequences of smoking, tobacco marketing that is targeted at women, and cessation and prevention strategies.

"Smoking is now a critical women's health issue that must be addressed on all fronts," HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said. "We must begin this fight in our schools before girls even begin to smoke, and we must share with teenage girls the knowledge  that smoking is not only harmful, but it is not glamorous or cool. Society must not glorify smoking."