“Mortality attributed to tobacco has decreased in the male population in recent decades, while it has increased dramatically in the female population”, underline Catherine Hill and Laureen Ribassin-Majed, epidemiologists at the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif ( Val-de-Marne) and Inserm (National Institute for Health and Medical Research).
The latter have just published a study in the scientific journal European Journal of public health. They indicate that deaths due to tobacco among women rose from 2,700 in 1980 to 19,000 in 2010. While, among men, at the same time, the number of deaths fell from 66,000 to 59,000.
Tobacco: women more vulnerable
Research by Norwegian researchers explains that women are biologically more vulnerable the toxic effects of tobacco. They therefore have a higher risk than men of developing smoking-related illnesses, including cancer. This caused 47,000 of the 78,000 tobacco-related deaths in 2010 (the lung cancer, who is also gaining ground among women, representing 28,000 deaths).
Cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases are the two other major causes of anticipated death attributable to tobacco, killing 20,000 and 11,000 respectively, according to calculations by the two epidemiologists.
They add: “Women who were 20 years old in the 1970s began to smoke intensely and the younger generations that followed adopted the same attitude. As a result, the risk among women is expected to increase further until 2050 ( end of the first generation of women who smoke intensely), even if the current younger generations quickly quit smoking ”.
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