With each puff, women are risking their health

Head to a hen party and you will see smoke all over. Outside a college campus or on office corridors, gang of girls or women busy smoking is a common view in Bangalore. Young girls from the city have taken up to smoking as a lifestyle.

And on World No Tobacco Day, experts from the city spoke about the ill effects of smoking — both active and passive on women.

Like their male counterpart, women smokers suffer all the consequences of smoking like increased risk of various cancers including lung, mouth, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, kidney, pancreas, kidney, and bladder cancers, heart disease and respiratory diseases, said Dr Aditi Modi, surgical oncologist, HCG.

Smoking also increases the risk of breast and cervical cancer, and leads to numerous problem like menstrual disturbances, infertility, pregnancy related complications and pelvic inflammatory disorders, she said.

Statistics from Kidwai reveal that of all the cancer cases among women, about 30% suffer from oral cancer, 28% from esophagus cancer and 17% from lung cancer. “While all these forms of cancer in women are someway related to tobacco consumption, the number of affected women is likely to go up in the coming decade, with more youngsters taking up smoking. Around 48% of women who smoke, run the risk of malignancy,” said Dr KC Lakshmaiah, professor and head of department, medical oncology, Kidwai.

While for rural Indian women, tobacco consumption is a habit, for urban educated women, it is more of a lifestyle and status indicator, he said.

For women, smoking affects the course of pregnancy and the unborn child also. Smoking increases the risk of miscarriages.

“Women, who are regularly into smoking, have higher chances of ectopic pregnancy, premature labour, bleeding and placental problems. Most of the time, the baby is born underweight,” said Dr Modi.

That’s not all. But smoking for a long period of time may indicate an early menopause for women. “Beginning to smoke as a teenager increases a woman’s risk of having menopause early. Smokers often notice symptoms of menopause two to three years earlier than women who do not smoke. Menstrual problems such as abnormal bleeding, amenorrhoea and vaginal infections are common complaints among women who smoke,” she said.

Passive smoking causes cancer
Women, more commonly and unfortunately are victims of passive smoking. Second-hand smoke, also known as passive smoking is the combination of smoke from the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke breathed out by the smoker.

“Second hand smoke is dangerous as it contains toxins smoked out by individuals. Breathing second hand smoke for a short time can affect the body. Moreover, passive smokers hold a higher risk of developing tobacco related cancer than smokers,” said Dr Lakshmaiah.