Smoking on the rise among Indian women, but declining among men

Ahead of World No-tobacco Day today, a study has found that while smoking rates have fallen among Indian men, they have risen among women; which doctors say could be a factor in rising cases of infertility and higher risk of cancer among Indian women.

The study used data from several multinational and national surveys, including the Global Adult Tobacco Survey, and found that India is the third largest producer of tobacco and the second largest consumer of tobacco products worldwide.

The study, published earlier this year in the British Medical Journal and which was earlier carried by the the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), examined the prevalence of smoking and cigarette consumption in 187 countries between 1980 and 2012 and found that while cigarette smoking among Indian men fell from 33.8 per cent in 1980 to 23 per cent in 2012, it rose from three per cent to 3.2 per cent among Indian women. In absolute terms, the number of female smokers in India has more than doubled – from about 5.3 million to 12.2 million in that time.

The study revealed that although the prevalence of cigarette smoking in India has dropped by over 5 per cent over the last three decades, the number of smokers in India has risen from about 74.5 million in 1980 to 110.2 million in 2012. However, as compared to 1980 when Indians used to smoke an average of 11.6 cigarettes a day, now they average 8.2 a day.

A different study in 2012 further found that 42 per cent of cancers in men and 18.3 per cent cancers in women were related to tobacco consumption. Cardiovascular disease is also linked to it.