can u blelieve this?. just heard it yesterday from a news station. And i googled it and found out same.the research was carried out by WHO.what is the country turning to.or there was an error somewhere?.

can you post the research findings and the exact source.

i find it hard to believe. some of these research can base their findings erronously on a small unrepresentative sample.

just google it u will see newspapers that carried it

[size=14pt]Girls smoke more than boys in Nigeria -WHO[/size]

SEMIU OKANLAWON


The 2010 World Tobacco Day (which is today) focuses on the need to ban all forms of promotion of tobacco even with a new direction to fight the recruitment of the womenfolk into smoking, writes SEMIU OKANLAWON

[img]http://odili.net/news/source/2010/may/31/punch/images/pix2010053138740[1].jpg[/img]
Girls smoke more than boys in Nigeria -WHO



http://odili.net/news/source/2010/may/31/838.html

It may sound odd, but the World Health Organisation says more girls than boys smoke tobacco; giving new reasons why the anti-tobacco crusade must now address the womenfolk.

When on Friday, WHO called for a special protection of women and girls against tobacco, it was not as if the organisation had assumed the other members of the society needed not to be shielded from the harmful effects of what is perceived globally to be an addictive consumption.

It was because global researches have indicated a growing, worrisome trend in the habit of women and girls who take tobacco as a thing of glamour and status. WHO's new direction of campaign is to press home the focus of this year's World Tobacco Day.

WHO's Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, said, "The trends in some countries are extremely worrisome," adding, "Tobacco use is neither liberating nor glamorous. It is addictive and deadly."

This 2010 campaign theme, "Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women, focuses on the harmful effects of tobacco marketing towards women and girls. It also highlights the need for governments to ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and to eliminate tobacco smoke in all public and work places as provided in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control," according to the global health body.

Nigeria, where the campaign against smoking has been gaining ground through the efforts of the Environmental Rights Action, is ranked among countries which WHO Director-General said the trend is pretty worrisome.

Smoking may be one habit that is generally perceived to be rife among males, but a recent survey, according to WHO, shows that there is a growing rate of tobacco use amongst girls and women. Women and girls are said to represent 20 per cent global smoking population.

"In half of the 151 countries recently surveyed for trends in tobacco use among young people, approximately as many girls uses tobacco as boys. More girls use tobacco than boys in some of the countries, including Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cook Islands, Croatia, Czech Republic, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria and Uruguay.

"Women are a major target for the tobacco industry in its effort to recruit new users to replace those who will quit or die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. The leading preventable cause of death, tobacco use kills more than five million people every year, about 1.5 million of whom are women," says WHO on Friday.

And what is the nexus between tobacco and women? Or better still; what is the attraction? After strategic manners in which the anti-smoking campaigners across the world had tackled the recruitment of youths into smoking by tobacco manufacturers and marketers, there is said to be a new path manufacturers and marketers are following to force smoke down the throats of women. By linking smoking with beauty, young girls are easily fascinated and are consequently recruited into the habit.

that's not true. what's their research based on? seems WHO has lost their marbles

Again i seriously take this with a pinch of salt. We all know anti-tobacco lobbyist will come out with all sorts of appalling figures like this.

Besides they did a survey which is the weakest form of research. The article failed to quote the sample figure used or in how many states this was conducted. In addition it was done on young people only.

sounds fake flawed unless nigeria has changed.

I bet they extrapolated their data and jooked up their statistics, hey anything to bash the females eh? Take this piece of useless research with a pinch of salt.

what was the criteria for the research? dont believe it. sounds like some random assumptions they cooked up

With the state of our health service nobody in Nigeria could afford to get cancer.
Nigerian that smoke should stop!

Thats arrant nonsense, where did they find the ladies, i can count the number of ladies i have seen smoking either on the streets or in clubs. this is pure rubbish.

[color=#990000][/color]I've lived in Nigeria all my live, and have NEVER seen a nigerian girl or woman smoking tobacco! I'm almost thirty and can say proudly that our culture hasn't deteriorated to that extent (even though it is now obvious that certain envious people/societies wish it had).