INWAT.org

Why work on women and smoking?

"Women who smoke like men, die like men" warned the US Surgeon General. Yet there is now growing concern that in some ways women smoke like women and, tragically, die like women."

Some differences are at least partly biological:responses to nicotine, and nicotine withdrawal, may be different for women.
women have extra reproductive risk linked to smoking, and possibly greater risk of serious illness.

Others are mainly social:

within each country, women are at a different stage of the smoking epidemic - and the
tobacco industry sees women as a key market.
women’s social roles shape smoking behavior.
across the Western world, smoking among younger women is resisting change.
women also suffer greater poverty, a key issue in smoking control.

How much are these differences part of being female - or being female in Europe now? Whatever the answers, we need to understand ‘women and smoking’ as part of effective tobacco control.

Several health groups have named women and smoking as priority for action. These include the World Health Organization, Europe Against Cancer, and the European Network for Smoking Prevention (WHO, EAC, ENSP). The UN Commission on the Status of Women has also recognized this issue.

‘Women’s health’ and other welfare groups also have a role to play, particularly in developing broader ideas of health and the role of health workers.

Notes on language

‘European’ generally refers to the WHO Europe region. At present we have less information on southern, central and eastern areas, but hope to include more.
Some information relates to the European Union (EU) - if so this is stated.
Terms such as ‘heart disease’ refer both to symptoms and death rates.
The shorter term ‘rate’ is used for the more correct ‘prevalence’, and ‘quit’ or ‘stop’ for ‘smoking cessation’.

International Network of Women Against Tobacco (INWAT) info@inwat.org
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