While overall tobacco consumption has gone down across the country, smoking has gone up more than two-fold in teen girls, according to data in the latest India Tobacco Control report released by the Union Health Ministry.
There has been an increase in smoking among adolescents over a decade but the increase has been sharpest for girls, according to the report.
Smoking in girls went up by 3.8 percentage points between 2009 and 2019, increasing to 6.2 per cent.
This is the reason girls have become a prominent target, with images of smoking as fashionable and a sign of women empowerment.
In 2019, 7.4 per cent girls and 9.4 per cent boys were tobacco users.
While overall tobacco consumption has gone down across the country, smoking has gone up more than two-fold in teen girls, according to data in the latest India Tobacco Control report released by the Union Health Ministry. Disturbingly, smoking is rising among adolescents even as it’s going down among older women.
There has been an increase in smoking among adolescents over a decade but the increase has been sharpest for girls, according to the report. Smoking in girls went up by 3.8 percentage points between 2009 and 2019, increasing to 6.2 per cent. Comparatively, smoking among boys increased by 2.3 percentage points. This comes at a time when there was a decline in smoking among adults, reducing by 2.2 percentage points in men and 0.4 percentage point in women. Not only that, the prevalence of smoking in girls (6.2 per cent in 2019) was much higher than in women (1.5 per cent in 2017), showing that the next generation is getting hooked.
WHY IS SMOKING INCREASING IN GIRLS?
One of the reasons that teenage girls are smoking more is that they are maturing fast and, like boys, are taking to cigarettes to get rid of their angst and appear cool. Succumbing to peer pressure, some also look upon it as a way to kill their hunger pangs.
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“Women have largely been an untapped demographic for tobacco companies. This is the reason girls have become a prominent target, with images of smoking as fashionable and a sign of women empowerment. Another factor is the depiction of smoking in films and television. Ever since the regulation to issue warnings when scenes of smoking appear on screen was introduced in 2012, we saw a decline in smoking on screen. However, with OTT platforms, where content without warning was uploaded, there was an increase in onscreen smoking. This is the reason the ministry brought in the new rules to regulate these platforms,” says Prof Monica Arora, one of the editors of the report and public health scientist at Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).
“There is also a worrisome trend of propagating e-cigarettes as safe when they aren’t. They are easily available on portals or in the grey market and are sold without verifying the consumer’s age, completely in violation of the laws,” she adds.
WHAT ARE HEALTH RISKS?
Smoking increases the risk of respiratory diseases, lung cancer and cardiovascular issues such as heart attack and stroke. It is known to impact fertility in both men and women. However, women have the additional risk of having smaller foetuses, premature births or babies with damaged lungs and birth defects. Smoking may cause excessive bleeding during delivery. There are longer lasting impacts too. Research has found that women who smoke have a 43 per cent increased risk of experiencing menopause before the age of 50 compared to non-smokers.
According to a 2019 study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, women under the age of 50 who smoke have a higher risk of having a specific type of serious heart attack compared to men. This difference may be due to the interaction of estrogen with the chemicals found in cigarettes. Many researchers have correlated tobacco usage to damage in the DNA among cells in the cervix, which contributes to the development of cancer. The American Cancer Society study showed how smokers had a higher risk of mortality from breast cancer than non-smokers.
THE GENDER GAP IS CLOSING
The gender gap is narrowing down among adolescents. In 2019, 7.4 per cent girls and 9.4 per cent boys were tobacco users. If interventions to get the youth to quit are not made, we might have more smokers in the future. That’s why the report has attached a 2040 vision document which advocates how those born after 2022 should not be exposed to tobacco advertising or promotion, where new tobacco products should be banned and the packaging would return to being plain.
