KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is seeing an increase of female smokers with those lighting up for the first time getting younger.
“Schoolgirls who pick up a cigarette for the very first time are often driven by peer pressure, and it is vital that we reach out to them to offer our support and expertise to help them kick the habit,” said Respiratory Medical Institute Head Datin Dr Aziah Ahmad Mahayiddin at the World No Tobacco Day 2010 celebration held at the institute here recently.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), women make up about 20% of the world’s estimated 1 billion smokers.
That is about 200 million women and counting, as the epidemic of tobacco use among women is increasing in some countries.
In Malaysia, the 2006 National Health Morbidity Survey (NHMS) showed that adolescent girls between ages 13 and 18 tend to start smoking at the average age of 14.1 years, only a slight difference to boys who start lighting up at 13.6 years
WHO statistic reveals a more somber picture. Across the world, some 600,000 deaths a year are caused by exposure to second-hand smoke with 64% of the deaths being women.
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