An epidemic of smoking-related cancer and disease in women

In March 2001, the Office of the US Surgeon General released a long-awaited, detailed report called Women and Smoking, along with this statement:

When calling attention to public health problems, we must not misuse the word “epidemic.” But there is no better word to describe the 600-percent increase since 1950 in women’s death rates for lung cancer, a disease primarily caused by cigarette smoking. Clearly, smoking-related disease among women is a full-blown epidemic.

– David Satcher, MD, PhD

Smoking is the most preventable cause of early death in this country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoking-related diseases cause the deaths of nearly 174,000 women in the United States each year. On average, women who smoke die 14.5 years sooner than non-smokers.

The most recent CDC survey (from 2010) showed that more than 1 in 6 American women aged 18 years or older (17.3%) smoked cigarettes. The highest rates were seen among American Indian/Alaska Native women (36%) followed by multi-racial women (23.8%), then white (19.6%), African-American (17.1%), Hispanic (9%), and Asian women (4.3%). In general, the less education a woman has, the more likely it is she will smoke. For instance, women with less than a high school education are more than twice as likely to smoke as college graduates.

Overall, women are less likely to smoke than men. But smoking is more popular among younger than older women. Nearly 20% of women ages 25 to 44 smoke. If these younger women continue to smoke as they get older, they will have more smoking-related illness and disability. Smoking rates are somewhat lower among women aged 18 to 24, about 17%. Less than 10% of women age 65 and over smoke.

Women who smoke often begin as teenagers — before high school graduation. And the younger a girl is when she starts, the more heavily she is likely to use tobacco as an adult. The most recent CDC surveys showed that 15% of 9th-grade girls had smoked at least one cigarette in the past 30 days. By 12th grade, it was more than 22%. As early as middle school, nearly 5% of girls had smoked one or more cigarettes in the past 30 days. It’s not just cigarettes, either; nearly 10% of 12th grade girls reported that they had smoked at least one cigar in the past month. And more than 26% of the senior girls had used some form of tobacco in the past month.