World No Tobacco Day
Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women
We all know tobacco as health hazardous and one of the major killers. Still then it has not been stopped. Of course tobacco control movement has increased than that of the earlier. Each year on May 31, WHO celebrates World No Tobacco Day highlighting the theme on health risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective polices to reduce consumption. Nevertheless to say that tobacco use is the second cause of death globally (after hypertension) and is currently responsible for killing one in 10 adults worldwide.
The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2010 is "Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women". When smoking first came into vogue, it was considered a man's activity and unfeminine. Therefore it became a vehicle for women's rebellion and for asserting a new, more independent, self-image. In most of the places in the world, being born male is the greatest predictor for tobacco use, with overall prevalence about four times higher among men than women globally (48 percent versus 12 percent).
Recent findings of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, however shows that young girls are smoking almost as much as young boys and those girls and boys are using non-cigarette tobacco products such as spit tobacco, biddies and water pipes at similar rates.
The tobacco industry targets women using seductive images of vitality, slimness, emancipation, sophistication and sexual allure. Liberation, autonomy and even female friendship future in developed countries advertising, and increasingly, where female roles have begun to change and women aspire to reach autonomy.
For a long time, smoking was considered a male activity-but tobacco manufacturers quickly discovered the lucrative female market. Over the past few decades, aggressive advertising campaigns for women have equated smoking with emancipation, glamour, and slimness and have successfully lured countless young women into the habit.
Tobacco use in Bangladesh 2009: 43.3 percent of adults (41.3 million) currently use tobacco in smoking and or smokeless form. 44.7 percent men, 1.5 percent women, and 23.0 percent overall (21.9 million) adults currently smoke tobacco. 26.4 percent men, 27.9 percent women, and 27.2 percent overall (25.9 million) adults currently use smokeless tobacco. Daily tobacco smokers are 40.7 percent men, 1.3 percent women, and 20.9 percent overall.
Tobacco causes similar health problems for men and women, including lung cancer, upper aerodigestive cancer, several other cancers, heart disease, stroke, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Tobacco poses additional specific threats for men and women. Men risk declines in fertility and sexual potency, and female smokers risk increased cardiovascular disease, in particular while using oral contraceptives, and higher rates of infertility, premature labor, low birth weight infants, cervical cancer etc.
So, we should think about the importance of pictorial warnings on all tobacco product packets. It is often told that a picture is stronger than thousand of words. If there are pictures of various diseased people accompanied with text warnings on the both surfaces of all tobacco products packet, crore of people will be informed about the deadly effects of tobacco use without expenditure.
Use of tobacco products caused 57,000 deaths in a year. So, we need to act now. This is the time to go ahead to save our gender who will save their next generation.
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The writer is Program Officer (Media), Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), Dhaka. E-mail: roysubroto79@yahoo.com
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