Special effects: tobacco policies and low socioeconomic status girls and women

摘要

Currently little is known about the specific effects of tobacco policies on low income girls and women. Research is vital on such effects both in developed and developing countries. Tobacco use is a global public health problem of epic proportion, which threatens to kill one of two smokers and harm many non-smokers along the way. The World Health Organisation views both tobacco use and tobacco production as a dire threat to world health, contributing to early death, chronic diseases, poverty, environmental degradation, and labour exploitation. Tobacco use has typically been patterned along gender and class lines, with higher class males typically beginning to smoke before females and those in lower socioeconomic classes.