The number of smokers among teenage girls and younger women is rising, as well as the number of preventable deaths related to tobacco consumption and passive smoking, whereas the World Health Organization is calling for more rigorous anti-tobacco regulations to stop that growth.
As of this year, almost 5 million deaths reported worldwide are related to tobacco, and this grim figure could exceed 8 million per year by the year of 2030, in conformity with the report published by the WHO on the threshold of World No Tobacco day celebrated on May 31st.
"The rate of smokers among women is growing nowadays," concludes Samira Asma, head of Global Tobacco Control Department at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "In case no regulations are applied, the picture will be horrible," she admitted. The World No Tobacco Day is observed each year since 1987 concentrating public attention on the health risks related to tobacco use.
In conformity with the WHO report tobacco use is not rising slowly, but growing rapidly, and especially, among younger women. Now smoking women make up approximately 20 of the world's 1 billion smokers, nevertheless, this percentage may rise soon, since the World Health Organization states major tobacco groups are targeting female population luring them to start smoking.
The WHO report says that tobacco industry has been applying the same the marketing strategies relied on social emancipation of women and their evolving social status that they have used on smoking was on the peak of its popularity. Because in developing and low-income countries generally there are no bans on tobacco marketing, those good-old marketing strategies are widely used there, resulting in the growth of smokers' rates and health risks.
The largest tobacco groups spend billions of dollars annually to advertise their products, particularly targeting adolescents and women, according to the report. This led to stabilization in the smoking rates across the United States at approximately 21% or adults after many years of constant declines.
The most shocking growth in cigarette smoking over the last years has been registered in poorer countries, whit majority of them having on tobacco-control measures. Only 26 of those countries have restricted or banned tobacco advertising.
WHO has joined efforts with various foundations and with the governments of the countries home to the highest smoking rates and founded a program named MPOWER. The campaign will encourage the lawmakers to adopt tobacco-control regulations, promote tobacco-free lifestyle, raise public awareness on the dangers of tobacco use and provide free counseling for smokers trying to give up their habit. This program has been initiated in Brazil last year and already gave some good results.
In addition, the WHO report featured country-by-country statistics of smoking population, demonstrating that the highest percentage of smokers is found in African countries (led Guinea home to 59 percent of smokers), Eastern Europe (with Greece home to 40%) and Asian countries.
Madagascar reported the lowest smoking rate with just 0.1 percent of adults across the country.
