Case studies - Global Perspectives on Women and Second Hand Smoke

Tobacco use and exposure is one of the largest preventable causes of death worldwide – for both men and women. What, then, is so special about its impact on women?

• Women face nearly all of the same health risks from tobacco as men, but also have extra risks including breast cancer, fertility problems and risks to their unborn children.

• Women are specifically targeted by the tobacco industry as a promising growth market, especially in countries where they have not traditionally smoked.

• Wherever they have less power and status than men, women are at a disadvantage in negotiating their right to breathe clean air in workplaces, public places or at home.

• Poverty, greater responsibilities for child care, traditions which limit their activity, or taboos on women smoking may make it more difficult for women smokers to seek or get help
quitting.

What can we do to ensure that women get full protection from policy to protect our health?

• Enact and enforce comprehensive smoking bans in public places: this ensures that everyone, regardless of power or influence, gets full protection from second hand smoke exposure in those places.

• Ban tobacco advertising and promotion. Non-smoking women and girls from around the world are at risk of being pulled into a lethal addiction to tobacco and smoking women discouraged from quitting by advertising which associates tobacco use with fashion, luxury, sophistication, freedom, modernity and attractiveness.

• Raise tobacco taxes. These have a greater impact on the smoking prevalence of women and other groups with less economic power (like youth).

• Tailor cessation support to the needs of women and ensure that it is accessible for them.

• Ensure women’s participation in the design and implementation of tobacco control policy: women know best about the specific problems faced in their societies, and how to best
take them into account.

The following articles highlight the work of women in Scotland,  India, China and Argentina and who have played key roles ensuring that women’s needs are taken into account in the formation of tobacco control policy and the provision of cessation services around the world:
View the case studies here