The 675-page tome of statistics and research findings lays out just how much carnage has been wreaked on women from tobacco. Since 1980, about 3 million American women have died prematurely from a range of illnesses, such as cancer and heart and lung diseases, in which smoking played a role. A woman who dies of a smoking-related illness loses an average of 14 years of life, according to the report. All in all, smoking-related deaths have doubled for women since 1965. Today it accounts for about a quarter of all female cancer deaths, exceeding the toll from breast cancer.
Women also face reproductive hazards from smoking.
They are at increased risk of infertility and some pregnancy complications. Babies born to smoking moms tend to be of lower birth weight, says the report. The sickening irony is how the aspirations of feminism were used to increase the ranks of female smokers. One of the most devastating chapters in the surgeon general's report is a chronicle of how the tobacco industry has promoted smoking to women as a way to achieve independence, glamour and a piece of the testosterone power pie. The advertising gurus seem to know what women really want.