Cigarette companies have been targeting women and young girls since tobacco broke onto the scene in the early 20th century. One famous Lucky Strike ad campaign told women to “Reach for A Lucky Instead of A Sweet,” appealing specifically to women’s image insecurities.
These early marketing efforts portrayed female smoking as a way to express one's independence and to be particularly stylish and sexy.
Their efforts have been fortuitous, no doubt, because I personally know at least a dozen women who have taken to nicotine as a weight loss method and I’m sure you could think of a few yourselves.
But you should warn your friends that in the near and distant future, a cookie that collects on your hips is a healthier option than a cigarette that gives you an oral fix and a little more room in your pants.
Turns out, a report out today, tells us that inhaling or consuming even the smallest amounts of tobacco smoke can cause considerable damage.
According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s new report on tobacco, “Even brief exposure to tobacco smoke causes immediate harm to the body, damaging cells and inflaming tissue in ways that can lead to serious illness and death.”
The report, "How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease" is Regina Benjamin's first as Surgeon General and describes tobacco smoke's assault on the body.
The report focuses on the medical effects of smoke on the body but also sheds light on why cigarettes are so addictive: “They are designed to deliver nicotine more quickly and more efficiently than cigarettes did decades ago.”
Every exposure to tobacco, from occasional smoking or secondhand smoke, can damage DNA in ways that lead to cancer.
Smoking is responsible for a long list of health problems including:
• More than 85 percent of lung cancers;
• Heart disease, stroke, aortic aneurysm and peripheral arterial disease (PAD);
• 13 different cancers including esophagus, trachea, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, cervix and acute myeloid leukemia;
• Chronic diseases like stroke, blindness, periodontitis, heart disease, pneumonia; reproductive problems like diminishing fertility; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
Cigarette damage can truly begin with just one puff. In someone with underlying heart disease, for example, one cigarette can cause a heart attack.
So ladies, please, the next time you want to grab a Virginia Slim to stay slim, please remember that there are other healthier, more effective ways to drop some pounds and get healthy.
So go ahead, eat the Oreo, not the cigarette.
References:
Just one cigarette can harm DNA, Surgeon General says
http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/2010-12-09-1Asmoking09_st_N.htm?csp=34
Surgeon General report: Tobacco smoke does immediate damage
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/12/09/tobacco.risk/index.html
Tobacco Industry Targeting of Women and Girls
http://doh.state.fl.us/chdCharlotte/HealthyLifestyles/documents/Women_smoking_facts.pdf