Thanks to an aggressive, sustained anti-smoking program, California has seen a decline in women's lung cancer rates while they are still rising in the rest of the country. The voice of women is needed to counter tobacco marketing campaigns that equate success for women with smoking. But there is no better word to describe the 600-percent increase since 1950 in women's death rates for lung cancer, a disease primarily caused by cigarette smoking. This report summarizes what is now known about smoking among women, including patterns and trends in smoking habits, factors associated with starting to smoke and continuing to smoke, the consequences of smoking on women's health and interventions for cessation and prevention. What the report also makes apparent is how the tobacco industry has historically and contemporarily created marketing specifically targeted at women.
Smoking is the leading known cause of preventable death and disease among women.
In 2000, far more women died of lung cancer than of breast cancer. A number of things need to be acted on to curb the epidemic of smoking and smoking-related diseases among women in the United States and throughout the world. Increase awareness of the impact of smoking on women's health and counter the tobacco industry's targeting of women. Support women's anti-tobacco advocacy efforts and publicize that most women are nonsmokers. Continue to build the science base for understanding the health effects of smoking on women in particular.