GENEVA – The growing number of women who smoke and have become addicted to nicotine was among the issues highlighted at the public hearings held by the World Health Organisation (WHO) last week as a precursor to this week’s negotiations leading to a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.  

Delegate after delegate, particularly those from the developing world, appealed to the WHO to support measures to protect women from the persuasive images used in cigarette advertising, as well as to consider the harmful effects of passive or secondary smoking on women and children who are often exposed to smoke in the home.  

Bangladesh researcher, Soon-Young Yoon said one of the reasons for the big increase in the number of women smoking in developing countries was the link created by tobacco companies’ advertising between women’s liberation and tobacco.

“Cigarettes are portrayed as ‘power-sticks’, a sign of sophistication, or as a means to keep you slim,” she said.  

These images had all been successfully tired and tested in campaigns run successfully in the USA in the 1960s and ’70s, when brands such as Virginia Slims explicitly linked their product to the women’s liberation movement with the slogan, “You’ve come a long way, baby”.  

Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that until 1962 the number of Americans smoking had declined steadily.  

However, an increase in the number of smokers among girls between 14 and 17 coincided with the launch of campaigns for “women’s cigarettes” in the late 1960s.

 In the United States, lung cancer has surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths among women. According to the US-based Centres for Disease Control an estimated 62 000 women die each year of lung cancer. This   sharp rise is in all likelihood due to the growth in the number of women smokers in the 1960s and 70s.

Spokesperson for the Women’s Environment and Development Organisation, Pam Ransom said the WHO framework convention on tobacco control should include strategies to target and protect women in particular.

“In the developed world, men are beginning to stop smoking, yet the rates of women smokers are increasing. Women smokers were more at risk because nicotine was more addictive among women than men, she said.

Brazilian journalist Thias Corral said a successful joint campaign by government and non-government organisations in her country had resulted in a decline in the number of smokers by one third over the past decade.  

“However, as consumption decreased, we saw a clear increase in the amount of aggressive advertising by the tobacco industry,” she said.

Corral said that 2,7 million smokers in Brazil were between five and nineteen years old. Thirty thousand were less than 10 years old.  

Brazil is the largest exporter of tobacco leaf worldwide.  

Member states of the World Health Assembly began negotiations yesterday (Monday) to reach agreement on the terms of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and what protocols will govern the implementation of the treaty in different parts of the world. It is anticipated that the convention will be ready for approval by May 2003. – Health-e News Service.