Issue: Tobacco Control 

Each year lung cancer and other smoking-related diseases take the lives of more than 140,000 American women. While women experience the same ill effects of smoking as men, research studies have demonstrated gender differences in the effects of tobacco use, with females appearing more susceptible to tobacco carcinogens than males. Women also face additional risks, such as increased risk of cervical cancer; premature menopause; impaired fertility; and complications during pregnancy. There is a growing body of evidence that confirms that gender plays a significant role in determining how exposure to tobacco smoke affects health status.

• Women have a higher risk of developing lung cancer than men. Given the same level of lifetime exposure to smoke, the odds ratio for developing cancer is 1.2 to 1.7 times (20 to 70 percent) higher in women than in men for three major types of cancer. In another study, researchers found a nearly 17-fold increase in one type of lung cancer for women compared to a 10-fold increase in the same type of cancer among men. Studies suggest that women are more susceptible to DNA-damaging carcinogens in tobacco smoke.
  
  
• Lung cancer will kill 23,000 more women than breast cancer in 1998, according to the American Cancer Society.
  
  
• Young women under the age of 23 are the fastest growing sector of smokers in the United States, and ninety percent of adult smokers began the habit before the age of 19.
  
  
• Women find it more difficult to quit smoking than men according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. One theory is that women smoke for different reasons than men.
  
  
• Women have been largely excluded as subjects in lung cancer research. According to the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, a definitive 1984 study on early detection of lung cancer did not include women.

As Congress considers tobacco-control legislation, the Society for Women's Health Research urges the inclusion of the following principles:

• Funding for research that results from proposed legislation on tobacco should include funds for research on gender differences in smoking patterns, nicotine addiction, smoking cessation and tobacco-related illnesses.
  
  
• Revenues collected as a result of tax increases on cigarettes should be spent on federal research on smoking-related problems, addiction, cessation, prevention and disease treatment.
  
  
• Prevention programs, including federal initiatives, should focus on reducing access for children and adolescents to tobacco products and restricting advertising and promotions targeted at young people.

Society Position on Tobacco

SWHR supports interventions, research and cessation initiatives aimed at reducing the use of tobacco by women, especially in adolescents and young adults, including:

• More effective communication of research findings demonstrating that smoking tobacco products is addictive, causes disease and hastens death.
  
  
• Federal regulatory initiatives aimed at reducing access for children and adolescents under 18 to tobacco products as well as restricting advertising and promotions to young people.
  
  
• Research addressing the structural and functional changes in the brain relating to addiction in women and further exploration of gender differences in smoking cessation.