SMOKING: WHY A WOMAN SHOULD QUIT

Using tobacco is a bad idea for anyone. But women have special risks when they smoke. These include personal health risks and pregnancy risks.

Women who are smoking and are age 35 or older, are several times more likely to die from emphysema or chronic bronchitis than nonsmoking females. Lung cancer is a leading cause of death among women.

Women who are in their childbearing years face many harmful effects from smoking. Taking birth control pills and smoking increases the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attacks.

A woman who smokes may find it harder to get pregnant. Pregnant women who smoke, or who are exposed to secondhand smoke, are at higher risk for spontaneous abortions and stillbirths. Even if the pregnancy is successful, the babies can still suffer some real harm. These babies may weigh too little, be sick more often, and tend to have more serious illnesses requiring hospital care. Babies born to moms who smoke are more likely to suffer from lung problems and are more likely to die than babies born to non-smoking mothers. Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) occurs more often in babies whose mothers smoke.

Exposure to secondhand smoke in the family household or day care increases the risk of children to develop serious illnesses, such as asthma, smoke-caused coughs and wheezing, bronchitis, pneumonia, meningitis, eye and ear problems, potentially fatal lower respiratory infections, or injury or death from cigarette-caused fires. A breastfeeding mother can pass nicotine to her baby through her breast milk. The nicotine can increase the baby's heart rate and blood pressure to high levels.

Smoking causes skin wrinkling and prematurely ages the smoker. Unfortunately, teenage girls are unaware of this fact. They fall prey to the tobacco industry's marketing images of young women that connect glamour, slimness, liberation, and feminism to smoking.

For more information, contact your local chapter of the American Cancer Society or the American Lung Association, or visit their websites at www.cancer.org and www.lungusa.org.

Disclaimer: This content is reviewed periodically and is subject to change as new health information becomes available. The information provided is intended to be informative and educational and is not a replacement for professional medical evaluation, advice, diagnosis or treatment by a healthcare professional.

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