Gender and smoking

Even a turkey can smoke...

 While I'm aware that most of you reading this probably have no idea what the title of this paragraph is referring to, I decided I needed to go with it anyway. You see, I have been smoking cigarettes for nearly 13 years, despite the fact that I am very aware of the health risks that can come from partaking in this nasty and addictive habit. Anyway, in regards to the heading above this paragraph; it's funny to me because it's a line of text that I have seen numerous times in my uncle's garage, and it is pasted above a ridiculous photo of a thanksgiving turkey with sunglasses on it's breast region and a cigarette sticking out of it's anal region. While this isn't entirely related to my post, it does in my opinion provide a bit of insight into the mind of the non-smoker. If you don't smoke and never have, you have no idea what it is like to try and quit this addictive habit, and in turn you probably have no idea why people who smoke simply refuse to quit. I mean, it's bad for you, right? Just quit you dirty smokers! Unfortunately, most of the time it just isn't that easy.

Smokers come in all shapes, sizes, and genders

Smokers(particularly those living in the United States) are a highly varied demographic in terms of race, age, and gender, but historically the majority of smoking related health issues have been seen in men. Unfortunately, in the past 50 years or so this has changed dramatically. While smoking as a whole is steadily declining in this country, the percentage of females who are dying from smoking-related health issues has increased exponentially from what was seen 50 or 60 years ago. In fact, almost 500,000 Americans die from smoking-related diseases annually, and almost half of these people are women. This may not seem all that shocking, but the reality of the matter is that prevalence of lung cancer deaths in women has increased by almost 800% in this same timespan.

According to our in-class text, the proportional increase of female smoking is largely a result of the empowerment women experienced when World War II came around and women began seeking employment outside of the home. To me this idea of "empowerment" leading to an increase in smoking seems a bit odd, but then again what do I know? Either way, the fact remains that the percentage of female smokers in the United States has risen dramatically, and today lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer deaths among women in this country; accounting for a staggering 1/4 of cancer-related deaths seen in American females. In addition, COPD, which is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. (number 4 to be exact), is now becoming more common in women than men in this country, which is also quite striking as historically COPD has been known to be a disease mostly seen in elderly men.

Thankfully, it isn't all bad news in terms of smoking in the United States. Overall, smoking is in a steady decline in this country for both men and women. While women are catching up and sometimes even eclipsing men in terms of smoking-related disease and mortality in this country, the total number of smokers has decreased by almost 30% overall in the half-century or so. Needless to say, this is really great news. As a longtime smoker myself, it is really great to see this sort of trend developing, as it is really disturbing to think that almost half a million people per year are dying each year as a result of this type of damaging health behavior. The only thing left for me to do now is jump on the bandwagon and quit this nasty habit of mine. It's certainly going to be tough, but the last thing I want to become is a statistic.

In closing, my question for you all is this: Why do you think that the number of smokers in this country has been steadily declining in recent years?  Does it have to do with increased knowledge of the risks involved?

Sources: Cockerham, W. (2010) Medical sociology 11th Edition