2023-04-23 06:19:14
Smoking or tobacco use is a widespread addiction in the population of the country. Although we women joined the smoking habit late, now we are in the lead, there are more smokers than smokers. Marketing by cigarette companies has been very successful since the middle of the last century to encourage women to smoke. Those of us who comb gray hair remember Virginia Slim cigarettes (that brand dedicated to women with that feminine image of a delicate and sexy silhouette), who smoked that thin and long cigarette in a beautiful holder. This attracted women who blended in with Virginia Slim and started smoking. The ad was careful not to show women coughing and spitting up like men do from tobacco: that would have broken the charm.
For some years now, tobacco use has been higher in women than in men. A survey carried out in the country in 2020 among students between the ages of 13 and 17 showed that 19.5% of the total consume tobacco, and according to sex, 17.6% of men and 21.1% of women do. does. If we consider that 20.2% of students between the ages of 13 and 15 use tobacco and, according to sex, 18.7% of men and 21.4% of women use some kind of tobacco product. In the country, the start of consumption is at 12 years of age; This shows us how the propaganda was effective, because in recent years it was oriented to promote consumption among adolescents and children. For that, they use techniques that are reinforced with the display in the places of sale, especially in kiosks. Two thirds of smokers buy their cigarettes in kiosks, where the age of who is sold is not controlled. The student survey showed that eight out of ten student smokers were not denied a sale because of their age. In addition, we know that in adolescent women and girls with less exposure to tobacco, addiction is generated more quickly, and that once addiction is established it is very difficult to eliminate it.
The strategies developed by marketing towards women and girls and adolescents associate smoking with a sexy attitude that makes them appear older to the younger ones, and allows them to be looked at by older men. The association with loss of appetite, then, is seen as a way to not gain weight, all strategies to attract them and get them started and addicted. On the other hand, society is not aware that smoking is an addiction and therefore it is a very difficult disease to overcome. Smoking in pregnant women causes spontaneous abortions and other disorders such as lower fetal weight. Although pregnant women are told not to smoke, when they are addicted it is more difficult to do so. It has been proven that girls and boys of smoking parents tend to smoke more frequently, and are more exposed to the harmful effect of tobacco smoke. This increase in smoking in women translates into a higher frequency of deaths associated with tobacco such as lung cancer, heart attack and other causes.
The World Health Organization developed the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control –FCTC– already ratified by 182 countries to protect people’s right to health. Argentina has not ratified this Agreement, alluding to the fact that it is a tobacco-producing country and would affect the economy of the producing provinces, although it is largely exported. The cost-benefit relationship between the cost of care for the diseases caused by tobacco, not counting the loss of life of people that has no economic value, and the possible damages caused by the production, it is evident that the opposition to ratify this Convention. That is why we ask that the health and lives of women and girls be ratified and protected.
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