Women

The future growth markets for tobacco lie with women in industrialized countries and with young people in developing countries with rapid economic development. We can preclude this

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General Emeritus, World Health Organization

Health risks

Tobacco's adverse health effects are universal in that they increase risks of cancer and heart disease among all smokers and that these risks are reduced by quitting smoking. However, for women, smoking carries unique risks of cancer. In addition, smoking by mothers may affect their infant children who typically spend most of their waking hours in close proximity to their mothers.

More on Women's health

Women's brands and "light" cigarettes

In many countries in the developed and developing world, "lights" and "low smoke" cigarettes are the preferred brand of women who may believe that they are healthier products. The tobacco industry has exploited this belief and promoted the image of cigarettes as having low risks. The truth is that a cigarette is a carefully designed nicotine delivery system.

Tobacco companies in the United States spend in excess of five billion dollars a year on marketing and promotion. Transnational tobacco companies have increasingly turned their focus to the developing world, with aggressive marketing campaigns aimed at women and girls.

The Kobe Conference

Women leaders, health experts and anti-tobacco activists urged the World Health Organization to fully integrate gender equality into a proposed international treaty on tobacco control. The Kobe Declaration was adopted by some 500 delegates who attended the four-day international conference on women and tobacco hosted by WHO in Kobe, Japan from November 14-18 1999.

The Declaration demands that the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) "Incorporate gender-specific concerns and perspectives and include a women's protocol; require the active participation of women delegates and NGOs in the development and monitoring of the Convention and its related protocols; and demand that the Convention and its related protocols are ratified by all member states without reservations that are incompatible to the spirit and the letter of the Convention" and "Ensure that gender equality in society becomes an integral part of tobacco control strategies and promote women's leadership that is essential to success."