Health Risks for Women Smokers Higher Than in the Past

A recent study has revealed the elevated risk women smokers face from lung cancer and other associated ailments connected to the use of tobacco.

The research in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) found a significant increase in fatalities among female smokers from chronic obstructive lung disease and lung cancer.

The health risks for today's female smokers are about 25.7 times more than non-smokers, the research revealed.

This trend is a cause of concern and can be attributed to the increase in availability of "light" and "mild" cigarette brands targeted towards women.

Researchers explained that "diluted smoke from these cigarettes is inhaled more deeply into the lungs of smokers to maintain the accustomed absorption of nicotine".

"The findings from these studies have profound implications for many developing countries where cigarette smoking has become entrenched more recently than in the United States. Together they show that the epidemic of disease and death caused by cigarette smoking increases progressively over many decades, peaking fifty or more years after the widespread uptake of smoking in adolescence," researchers said.



Source: Medindia