Review Article Volume 2 Issue 5 - March 2017 DOI: 10.19080/CTBEB.2017.02.555599 Curr Trends Biomedical Eng & Biosci Copyright © All rights are reserved by Namratha Kulkarni Women and Tobacco- An Overview Namratha Kulkarni* Department of Community Medicine, India Submission: February 01, 2017; Published: March 27, 2017 * Corresponding author: Namratha Kulkarni, Department of Community Medicine, JJMMC, India, Tel: , Email: Introduction and Statistics Tobacco consumption is the single most important avoidable risk factor in the growth of non communicable diseases all over the world [1]. Tobacco use is world’s number one killer and it kills up to half of its regular users. Tobacco Causes 10% of deaths worldwide, nearly 5.4 million a year of which 80% occur in developing countries [2]. About 250 million women in the world are daily smokers. About 22% of women in developed countries and nine percent of women in developing countries smoke tobacco. In addition, many women in south Asia chew tobacco [3]. Within 150 years of Columbus’s finding “strange leaves” in the New World, tobacco was being used around the globe. Its rapid spread and widespread acceptance characterize the addiction to the plant Nicotina tobacum. Only the mode of delivery has changed. In the 18 th century, snuff held sway; the 19 th century was the age of the cigar; the 20 th century saw the rise of the manufactured cigarette and with it a greatly increased number of smokers [3]. Roughly 10% of the world’s tobacco smokers live in India representing the second largest group of smokers in the world after China. India is also the third largest producer of tobacco leaves in the world. Tobacco use patterns in India are unique and reflect longstanding cultural practices. Two features stand out; bidis are more common than cigarettes; and chewing tobacco is widely prevalent [1]. In India, each year nine lakh people die due to tobacco related diseases and more than 2200 Indians die every day due to tobacco use. Tobacco use is responsible for 40% of all cancers in India. India is having highest number of oral cancer cases in the world among which 90% are tobacco related [2]. According to NFHS-3 estimates, 120 million Indians smoke of whom 11% of women aged 15 to 49 years consume some form of tobacco either smoked or non-smoked. The prevalence of tobacco use in any form among rural women in the age group of 15 to 49 years is 12.9% as compared to 6.7% in the urban women. Estimates show that, 8.5% of pregnant mothers and 10.8% of breastfeeding mothers use tobacco in some form [4]. Tobacco causes negative effects on a person’s health as soon as he/she starts using it in any form either regularly or occasionally. Short term effects include tooth decay, breathing problems exaggeration of asthma. Long term effects include cardio-vascular diseases, reproductive disorders, birth defects, brain shrinkage/cognitive dysfunction, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, cataract/blindness, cancers and respiratory disorders [2,3]. Tobacco kills both men and women but sex-specific differences exist. A high prevalence of smokeless tobacco use is an additional risk for premature death, especially among women. Tobacco use is one of the top six leading attributable risk factors for chronic diseases in women aged 20 years and above [3]. Curr Trends Biomedical Eng & Biosci 2(5): CTBEB.MS.ID.555599 (2017) 0091 Current Trends in Biomedical Engineering & Biosciences Abstract Tobacco consumption is the single most important avoidable risk factor in the growth of non communicable diseases all over the world [1]. Tobacco use is world’s number one killer and it kills up to half of its regular users. About 22% of women in developed countries and nine percent of women in developing countries smoke tobacco. In addition, many women in south Asia chew tobacco. Tobacco causes negative effects on a person’s health as soon as he/she starts using it in any form either regularly or occasionally. Tobacco kills both men and women but sex-specific differences exist. There are many gaps in the data about the health impact of tobacco use on girls and women of all ages and throughout the life-course. The use of multiple forms of tobacco in India complicates the efforts to reduce its overall impact on public health. In order to reverse the rising tobacco epidemic by effective health policies, community based epidemiological studies on tobacco use are required to quantify the problem and to identify the determinants and their distribution.