ThaiHealth concerned over young female smokers

BANGKOK: -- A number of Thai females have gone into smoking when they are less than 13 years old, according to a survey.

Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth), which is stepping into its 9th year, is thus worried about the smoking trends among girls and women.

"We are afraid that the number of female smokers will rise in the future," ThaiHealth manager Dr Supakorn Buasai said Tuesday.

A 2007 survey showed that 6.4 per cent of females were smokers. Covered in the survey were 3,039 girls and women between 13 and 24 years of age.

Of the self-confessed smokers, 31.4 per cent said they started lighting cigarettes since they were younger than 13.


-- The Nation 2009-11-03

No concern for the young men and boys who smoke then.

I vaguely remember the first time I saw a woman smoking in Thailand and it was quite a shock. When I first came to Thailand, it was one of the things I noticed--virtually no women smoked. Now, it's not common, but it's certainly not a shock anymore.

With a heading like that, an obvious retort must be crossing many male minds. Who will be the first to post to post that thought? Not I. I'm far too pure and wholesome.

Oh, and the women I did see smoke at that time--well, let's say, I found out later they weren't really women after all!

Oh...come on...There is no real campaign to stop smoking. Every day I see people (some in official uniforms) smoking cigarettes in restaurants and bus stations, sitting under the sign that states there is a 2000 THB fine for smoking on the premises. They are even offered ashtrays. Pointing to the sign has no effect. Smokers know the anti smoking law is a farce and never enforced. If this law was enforced the country would never have to worry about raising revenue for any public project.

The percentage of smokers and total amount of cigarettes sold in Thailand has been dropping for the last few years, advertising bans are in place, shop displays have been covered, pictoral warnings are on packs. Enforcement is an issue, but most developed/air conditioned eateries, offices, hotels are basically non-smoking now. In fact Thailand has one of the best levels of smoking prevention in the developing world.

6% of females were smokers. Much higher than I would have imagined but still a long way from figures in Europe and the US. When was the last time anyone saw a 13 year old girl lighting a cigarette in Thailand? Of course the one thing they dare not discuss is the 'chop-chop' tobacco available. Now that is an earner.

The fines for smoking in public places don't even represent 0.00000001% of the revenue the government gets for excise duty on cigarettes. Actually, I would venture that if all cigarettes were banned in Thailand the government would probably go bankrupt. It makes up an large take of their revenues, lest we forget the government also owns and operates its own domestic cigarette company.

This post has been edited by Thai at Heart: 2009-11-04 12:31:18

Back in the west we saw the same thing happen. One of the biggest failures of the womens liberation struggle was that women also started taking up the bad habits, like smoking en masse. Ti the point that in my home-country the number of female smokers out-size the headcount of males smoking and ratio of smokers vs non-smokers in the gender!

How did the yesterdays male chauvinism redefined feminism?


woman are biologically superior to men.

don't be afraid boys, even if the article is only concerned about the health of female smokers. that is not a sign that the feminists have taken over and the the male gender doomed and forgotten. but it indicates that it is still a Man's, Man's, Man's World.

There is one thing, wemen who smoke and use birthcontroll pills are more likely to have stroke than wemen who does'nt smoke. Birthcontroll pills are risk in itself to increase stroke. I smoked as a young girl but stopped when I was about 20. I had too much head ache.

I've had a little blood circulation problems as 40 year old and it's not nice. My memory is . The reason is not pills or smoke but my neck.

Anyway, healthy porblems come after 20-30 years so it's not easy to understand when you are young. It's not just lungs but heart and veins, and both men and wemen.