Report Reiterates Tobacco Industry Efforts to Target Women in Developing Countries

American Cancer Society
Friday, 1 August 2003

Population Called Last Untapped Market for Deadly Industry

A new country-by-country report on tobacco use and control, co-published by the American Cancer Society, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), lends further support to evidence that the tobacco industry is increasingly targeting women in developing nations, the largest remaining untapped market for cigarettes. The trend appears to be reversing historically lower smoking rates among those women.

The report finds tobacco's cancer burden is increasingly being shifted to developing countries. While about half of current tobacco deaths occur in developing countries, that number is expected to rise to more than 70 percent by 2020. The report, Tobacco Control Country Profiles (TCCP), 2003, provides a snapshot of tobacco production, trade, consumption, legislation and disease burden for 196 countries and territories worldwide.

According to the report, there were an estimated 4.9 million premature deaths from smoking in 2000, about evenly divided between the industrialized and developing world. By 2020, the global burden of tobacco is expected to exceed 9 million deaths annually, with 7 million occurring in economically developing nations.

"The tobacco industry has intensified its marketing strategies -- especially those targeting women -- in developing countries," said Michael J. Thun, vice president of epidemiology and surveillance research for the American Cancer Society. "International measures such as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control are essential to help countries protect themselves."

The global prevalence of tobacco use is substantially higher in men (47 percent) than in women (12 percent), reflecting the traditionally low prevalence of female smoking in many developing nations. However, as reported in previous research reports, the tobacco industry has targeted women in marketing and promotional strategies, capitalizing on Western images of independence, equality with men, glamour and sophistication to break down the traditional taboos against female smoking. False images of health, fitness, stress relief, beauty and even weight loss/management are depicted in female-targeted tobacco advertising. Tobacco companies have produced cigarette brands, with their associated advertising, specifically for women. The tobacco industry has also resorted to tactics such as sponsorship of beauty pageants, sports, art and music events and even women's organizations to further influence girls and young women to use tobacco.

Findings from developed and developing nations on female smoking that are contained in the report include:

• Recent increases in female smoking prevalence have been reported in Cambodia, Malaysia and Bangladesh


• Adult smoking prevalence is actually higher in women than men in five countries: the Cook Islands, Nauru, Norway, Papua New Guinea and Sweden.


• Girls age 15-16 were more likely to smoke than boys in Bulgaria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Slovenia and the United Kingdom

The TCCP report, the product of a collaborative effort between the American Cancer Society, the WHO and UICC, with in-kind and data support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Bank Group, is published every three years. The report is compiled by the American Cancer Society primarily from data collected and validated by WHO regional and country offices around the globe. The findings are being released at the 12th World Conference on Tobacco or Health, this week in Helsinki.

"Tobacco is already the single greatest cause of preventable death in the world," said John R. Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society and president UICC. "If current trends continue, 500 million people alive today will eventually die prematurely and needlessly from tobacco-related disease. The data in this report demonstrate the immense size and scope of the tobacco pandemic and should serve to mobilize the full force of the tobacco control community."

Among other findings in the report are:

• Worldwide, approximately 1.3 billion people currently smoke cigarettes or other tobacco products (approximately 1 billion men, 250 million women).


• In 1995, more smokers lived in low- and middle-income countries (933 million) than in high-income countries (209 million).


• About 35 percent of men in developed countries smoke, compared with almost 50 percent of men in developing nations and almost two-thirds of men in China.


• Currently, more than 600,000 annual smoking-attributable deaths occur in China alone.


• If current smoking patterns continue, deaths from smoking in Asia – home to one third of the world's population – are expected to increase to 4.9 million per year by 2020.

Despite the bleak statistics of the global tobacco pandemic, there are some encouraging trends in tobacco control. In the WHO Pan-American region, for example, per capita cigarette consumption has approximately halved from 1975 to 2000. Much of this decline occurred in the United States and Canada, where popular support for clean indoor air laws, increases in cigarette excise taxes, counter-advertising and other tobacco control components has discouraged smoking initiation by adolescents and reduced consumption among addicted smokers.

The 2003 TCCP report is available online by visiting www.cancer.org or GLOBALink at www.globalink.org/tccp.

The fight against cancer knows no boundaries, and the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) is the only global cancer organization with members and activities covering all aspects of cancer control. Founded in 1933, UICC is an independent, international, non-governmental association of 291 member cancer fighting organizations in 87 countries. Visit www.uicc.org.

The American Cancer Society is dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by saving lives, diminishing suffering and preventing cancer through research, education, advocacy and service. Founded in 1913 and with national headquarters in Atlanta, the Society has 17 regional Divisions and local offices in 3,400 communities, involving millions of volunteers across the United States. For more information anytime, call toll free 1-800-ACS-2345.

For more information, or to contact American Cancer Society, see their website at: www.cancer.org