According to a recent report issued by the U.S. surgeon general on women and smoking, smoking is the leading known cause of preventable death and disease among women. While smoking rates among adult women declined in the 1990s, this was offset by the increasing number of teen-age girls who smoke. Never is this more apparent than in Kentucky. Nearly 40 percent of our state's high school girls report having smoked in the past month, and one in five girls in middle school have also. About 80 percent of adults who smoke started before they were 18 years old.
Most women live in fear of developing breast cancer.
Yet, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death among women in the United States and Kentucky, having surpassed the rate of death from breast cancer in 1987. About 90 percent of all lung cancer deaths among women who continue to smoke are attributable to smoking. Research also shows that there are gender differences in tobacco use and smoking cessation. Women are more likely to smoke to reduce stress and control weight, whereas men smoke to reduce boredom and fatigue. Adolescents and women are more vulnerable to smoking's addictive effects than men and will become addicted at much lower rates of smoking.