Tobacco Companies Target Women in Third World Countries [08/08-4]
Excerpts from: Tobacco Companies Target Women in Developing Countries
HealthDay
[08/07/03]
In an attempt to increase sales of their deadly products, tobacco companies
are targeting women in developing countries, says a report released this week
at a major international tobacco conference in Helsinki.
Those efforts seem to be having an effect, as there is a reversal in the historically
lower smoking rates among women in developing countries, who represent the largest
untapped market for cigarettes, says the Tobacco Control Country Profiles 2003
report.
The report notes the burden of tobacco-related cancer is increasingly being shifted
to developing countries. Currently, about half of the world's tobacco-related
cancer deaths occur in developing countries. That's expected to increase to more
than 70 percent by 2020, the report says.
Smoking caused an estimated 4.9 million premature deaths in 2000. That number
is expected to grow to more than 9 million deaths a year by 2020.
But tobacco companies are using marketing and promotional strategies, capitalizing
on Western images of independence, equality with men, glamour and sophistication
to subvert traditional taboos against female smoking in developing countries,
according to the report.
That female-targeted advertising includes false images of health, fitness, stress
relief, beauty and weight loss/ management, the report says. Tobacco companies
have produced cigarette brands specifically for women. Tobacco industry sponsorship
of sports, beauty pageants, art and music events and women's organizations are
being used to influence girls and women to use tobacco.
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