Rajiv Parakh, chairman, department of peripheral vascular and endovascular surgery at New Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, is worried. “Over the last decade, there has been an increase in the number of women taking to smoking. Look around in cafes, hotel lobbies, offices, bars and restaurants, and what you see speaks louder than available statistics.” Loud enough, he says, to merit more than ordinary concern.
Disturbing trend
According to a World Health Organization study, First Report on Global Tobacco Use, released earlier this year, one in every 10 women in India smokes or chews tobacco.
In a nationally representative study of smoking in India, conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine in February, more than 62% of women smokers in India will die in their productive years, compared with 38% of non-smokers.
Tobacco smoke contains at least 1,400 chemicals, such as cyanide, benzene, methanol and acetylene
More than 20% of these are at risk of contracting respiratory diseases, 12% are vulnerable to heart attacks, and 9% to tuberculosis, the study states.
Other Survey also suggest that since the 1990s, more women than men started smoking in the crucial adolescent years. A study done by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in 2006, on 6,000 students across 32 schools in Delhi and Chennai, showed that 20% of the girls in class VI are lighting up.
A new generation
The big cities, say medical professionals, are the biggest offenders. In Delhi, for instance, class XI girls whose mothers have not smoked a single cigarette can expertly blow smoke rings. Urvashi, 17, started smoking after class X Board exams to be a “trailblazer”.
Komal, 19, says she started smoking because she wanted to beat the boys at their game. Manya, 19, who began working after school and took up a correspondence course, smokes because she can “afford” it and because it “looks smart”. Samita, studying to be a chartered accountant, picked up the habit just after school to “beat stress”.
But, are these youngsters aware of the effects of smoking? “Of course,” says Paramita, a third-year college student in Delhi. She says: “I know it causes cancer. But only if you smoke till you are old. It’s safe if I stop by 50.”
She’s 19, and has been smoking for two years. Paramita knows that smoking can affect her lungs. She’s heard of lung cancer. But, peripheral artery disease? “What’s that?” she laughs.
Deathly drags
Tobacco smoke contains at least 1,400 chemicals. Besides the poisonous carbon monoxide, the nicotine in tobacco makes it addictive because it increases the level of feel-good dopamine.
Some cigarettes also include ammonia to increase nicotine absorption. That, say experts, is what narrows and, ultimately, hardens arteries, and plays havoc with heart rate and blood pressure.