A girl in a coffin. I must say that for me the value of getting women to quit smoking in the US or in Sweden is neutralised if other women at the same time take up smoking in Lithuania, China, Brazil or South Africa. This is the message that all of us have to bring to the public. But unfortunately in many countries there is still a perception that smoking is mainly a male problem and that women seem to be more resistant to tobacco than men. This in a way isn't very surprising as only in a few countries like the US, UK and Canada, where women have smoked for decades now, have smoking related diseases among women become common.
Tobacco is now a leading killer of America and European women.
At present as many as half of the total number of women killed by tobacco every year are in the US which has only 5 per cent of the world s female population. This is a fact that clearly demonstrates the magnitude of the smoking epidemic among women. Except that women who smoke suffer from an increased risk of cervical cancer, infertility, menstrual problems, early menopause, increased risk of osteoporosis, smoking is also a major risk for poor outcome in pregnancy. Finally if this is not enough to inspire us to strong actions we have also learnt during the last years that the as with alcohol, women seem to be even more sensitive to tobacco than men. In Sweden, which is now one of the few countries in the world where more women than men are smoking, women are now the main lung cancer victims among people under 50 years.