The WHO Framework Convention, which took effect in 2005, expresses alarm at “the increase in smoking and other forms of tobacco consumption by women and young girls worldwide”. As WHO said in its 2007 report, Gender and tobacco control: a policy brief, “Generic tobacco control measures may not be equally or similarly effective in respect to the two sexes…[A] gendered perspective must be included…It is therefore important that tobacco control policies recognize and take into account gender norms, differences and responses to tobacco in order to…reduce tobacco use and improve the health of men and women worldwide”.
In another 2007 report, Sifting the evidence: gender and tobacco control, WHO commented, “Both men and women need full information about the sex-specific effects of tobacco use…equal protection from gendered advertising and marketing and the development of sex-specific tobacco products by transnational tobacco companies…[and] gender-sensitive information about, and protection from, second-hand smoke and occupational exposure to tobacco or nicotine”.
The WHO Framework Convention recognizes “the need for gender-specific tobacco control strategies”, as well as for the “full participation of women at all levels of [tobacco control] policy-making and implementation [of tobacco control measures]”.
Additional links:
Quit Now Website
National Tobacco Campaign 2011
Tobacco In Australia
References:
WHO website
