Women and young people in developing countries are smoking in increasingly alarming numbers.

According to a study in the Lancet Journal, after years of anti-smoking measures have been encouraged across the world, there exists an alarming rate of tobacco use in developing countries.

Tobacco is likely to kill half of its users as there are low quit rates.

Women and young people are among the most addicted.

“Although 1.1 billion people have been covered by the adoption of the most effective tobacco-control policies since 2008, 83 percent of the world’s population are not covered by two or more of these policies,” Gary Giovino of the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions in New York, who led the research, told Reuters.
Such measures include legislation in some developed nations banning smoking in public places, imposing advertising bans and requiring more graphic health warnings on cigarette packets.

Tobacco remains responsible as the number one killer in world.

As developed countries in the West are seeing a small decrease the rest of the developing world, especially those who are in the lowest socio-economic strata, are seeing a dramatic increase.

Tobacco companies prey on the lack of education and misinformation about tobacco to encourage young smokers.

Tobacco has killed 50 million people in the last 10 years, and tobacco is responsible for more than 15 percent of all male deaths and 7 percent of female deaths, the new Tobacco Atlas report found.
In China, tobacco is already the number one killer – causing 1.2 million deaths a year – and that number is expected to rise to 3.5 million a year by 2030, the report said.

Smoking causes lung cancer as well as several other chronic pulmonary diseases and is a major risk factor in heart disease, the world’s number one killer.

Are todays smokers more addicted than smokers of the past?

Although today there are fewer smokers it is more difficult for them to quit smoking.

The authors suggest that current policies to reduce smoking — like heavy tobacco taxes and bans on public smoking— might not work as well as they have in the past, because they tend to treat smoking as a choice rather than an addiction. These public-health efforts “may be effective in prodding social smokers with genetic resilience to quit, but may do less to help genetically vulnerable smokers quit,” said Pampel. The research team recommended emphasizing therapeutic quit-smoking approaches instead, like nicotine-replacement therapy and counseling.

Don’t bother using any beauty products if you plan on smoking.

Smoking, even occasionally, can cause a lifetime worth of damage.

Read on to find out what happens within minutes of lighting up.

0 to 10 Seconds
As you take the first drag, smoke passes through your mouth, leaving a faint brown film on your pearly whites. Toxic gases such as formaldehyde and ammonia immediately put your immune system on alert, causing allover inflammation.

Continue reading.