Women who smoke cigarettes are at a higher risk than men for cardiovascular disease, medical experts said on Thursday.
Women who smoke are more prone to contracting atherosclerosis, leading to coronary artery disease and other dangerous cardiovascular conditions, compared with men who consume the same amount of tobacco, said Wu Yen-wen (吳彥雯), head of the cardiology department at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in New Taipei City.
“Women are at higher risk, even when smoking a low amount, including flavored cigarettes,” Wu said, adding that clinical data indicated that women who smoke three to five cigarettes per day are considered “light smokers,” but are at 2.12 times more likely to have a heart attack than non-smokers.
For women who are heavy smokers — consuming more than 20 cigarettes per day — the risk of heart attack rises six-fold compared with non-smokers, or twice the risk of male smokers, she said.
Female smokers are also 56 percent more likely to experience a subarachnoid hemorrhage — bleeding in the brain — than male smokers, along with increased risks of cancers of the lung, breast and cervix, Wu said.
Also, female smokers are more prone to menstrual pain and serious menopause symptoms than non-smoking females, she said, adding that smoking reduces production of the ovaries, and that menopause could arrive one to four years early.
Survey results last year from the Health Promotion Agency (HPA) showed that female smokers aged 18 years or older rose from 2.4 percent in 2018 to 2.9 percent last year. Flavored cigarettes rose in popularity with women, from 33.6 percent of smokers in 2018 to 41.7 percent last year.
HPA deputy director Wei Shi-lun (魏璽倫) said that US studies showed 80 percent of young people who tried smoking were introduced to cigarettes with flavored products; fruit, flowers and chocolate are some of the flavored additives being used to attract consumers.
An amendment to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防制法) has been forwarded to the Executive Yuan, proposing explicit bans against flavored cigarettes, Wei said.
The HPA conducted group seminars in collaboration with Shih Hsin University for dialogues with eight female smokers aged 18 to 50, along with others who had quit smoking, to better understand the reasons that they began the habit, Wei said.
The participants included a range of professions, from housewives to fashion designers, Wei said, adding that most of them began smoking at school due to peer pressure.
Reports from the seminars showed that friendly talks and persuasion from friends helped women quit smoking. Warnings and pictures on packages had some effect on the decision to quit smoking, but were not as persuasive as having support from peers.
Additional reporting by Jason Pan
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