The fairer sex lights up

Lifestyles are indeed changing at a frenetic pace. Where cigars, hookahs and cigarettes were once regarded as symbols that spoke of man’s machismo, women too have caught up with the trend. Blame it on the ever-changing fashion statements, work stress, women’s liberation or too much of freedom, the accepted fact is - smoking is as much a woman’s domain today.
And women are puffing away without much of a care. “So, what’s wrong? I mean if smoking is bad, it’s bad for both – men and women alike. Then why is there always an eyebrow raised when it’s about girls smoking?” reasons Jyoti Khurana, a chain-smoker who works with a BPO. So even though Jyoti admits the habit is bad, she shares, “the addiction for anyone starts almost the same way. The fact that girls are as independent and high earning, and facing the same stress as men, the reasons for taking smoking too are similar.”
Sharing her account as to what prompted her to pick the butt, Jyoti says, “It was all in fun, or so I thought. Eversince I had joined here, I used to see my colleagues, then friends go down for a smoke everyday. So while I accompanied them in their rounds of ‘smoke break’, I resisted it for quite long. Then it was some three-four months later that I thought I’ll give it a try too and look as cool as my friends. But the mistake I made was that instead of buying one cigarette, I bought a pack of 20. And that’s just how I realised I had somewhere picked up a liking for it, and slowly an addiction. And like they say, once a smoker, always a smoker.”
So while it was peer pressure and the urge to look “cool” that pushed Jyoti into an addiction, with her lighting as many as 20 butts a day, she clarifies, “Though each smoke does make you feel light in the head and gives you that high, the habit’s got nothing to do with stress. In fact, in my case, I started in my very happy days.”
Priya Jain, a media person, who’s married and a mother of a 13-year-old, confesses her reasons for the addiction, “For me, it was stress and only stress that brought me to doing it. The family I come from, I had never seen my parents drink or smoke, so till I got married and much after that, smoking was as much a taboo for me as it is for many other Indian girls. But it was some five years back, when my daughter was eight and I joined this media house that literally required me to slog through the day that I gave in to this weakness. Smoking, then for me was more like an attempt to stay up and keep active, which unconciously became a habit.
Now, the situation is such that even if I’ve had a tiff with my husband and I’m feeling stressed, I have to take a smoke to get calm.”
But with that she also admits, “I know it’s bad and I’ve even tried taking anti-smoking tablets to quit the habit, but so far nothing has helped. The worst effect that I’m afraid it will have – is that my daughter too may take it up at some point in her life.”
But that’s just how the legacy is passed, feels sociologist Reeta Brara, who delves into the possible reasons for the growing number of women taking to smoking. “This sudden rise of smoking women is all to do with the changing lifestyles and mindsets. Reasons for their picking up the butt vary from wanting to feel at par with the men, peer pressure or peer influence, or simply to feel too evolved and cool. The former is the case with a whole lot of fresh college students taking to it, who can be seen with a drag outside colleges or pubs and clubs that permit smoking. Here the ambience is such that girls know that their smoking could be passed off as some style statement and that no one would even give them a second glance of shock or amazement. Plus, career wise, with girls doing as well as men, enjoying all the possible liberation, independence and good money, the common notion among them is – ‘If boys can, why can’t we?’”
But is that anything to do with stress, like many claim, “Nothing at all. People smoke when they’re happy, sad, celebrating just anything. If smoking was a result of stress or sadness, why would one be tempted to do it when he’s happy?” reasons Brara.
So while the accepted fact is, women are smoking, we ask a health expert of the repercussions that it could have on a female body. “We all know smoking is injurious, but for a woman, even more. The prime reason for it is the fact that woman’s lung capacity is very less compared to men. Hence, the damage to her body from smoking will be far more and faster,” warns Dr Amitav Srivastava, anesthesist and head of anti-tobacco cell, Dufferien Hospital, Lucknow.
The other adverse effects of smoking that Dr Amitav warns of are:
- Threat of lung cancer.
- Blood vessels get damaged that affects the proper circulation of blood leading to complications
- Smoking leads to the production of carcinogen or cancer producing chemicals
- Women smoking during pregnancy are responsible for causing IUCR (Intra Utrine Growth Retardation) in babies, wherein the baby’s health and growth while inside the womb gets affected drastically
- Congenital anomalies in baby after he’s born, that could vary from delivering a baby with a undeveloped liver, stomach, heart or any other body part or organ
- Problem in conceiving babies
- High chances of miscarriages since the blood supply is disturbed in smoking women
- Breast and uterus cancer are one of the most common side-effects of smoking in women
- Disrupted or irregular menstrual cycle
- Oral cancer followed by tar or tanning of teeth and darkening of lips in regular smokers. Stomach cancer is also likely
- Aging process gets faster
- High blood pressure
- Mental stress
- Major loss of appetite
- Acidity
- Lethargy
With that he also clarifies, “And whoever says smoking busts stress, they’re living in ignorance. For biologically, nicotine blocks the receptors in the body, because of which there’s a sense of relaxation for sometime. But that’s very, very temporary and the reason why one is tempted to smoke again and again is to get the same sense of relaxation, soon followed by an addiction. So it’s the one of the worst addictions one is likely to pick up and one of the most difficult to give up too,” says Dr Amitav.
So, keep your hands off the butt, guys!
Special:World No Tobacco Day