Indian women show higher rates of tobacco use

The largest ever world wide study has dug its heels into the tobacco crisis. According to the international survey , nearly half of all men and 1 in 10 women use tobacco in many developing countries.

In 2008, India banned smoking in public places. However, very little has been done to implement these directives. According to the survey, done by the Buffalo School of Public Health, India's anti-tobacco drive is extremely ineffective. The survey covered over three billion people across 16 countries.

To back up this proclamation, the study goes on to show that India has among the slowest tobacco-quit rations in the world. Very few smokers or smokeless tobacco consumers have kicked the habit in the last four years. An estimated 10 lakh Indians lose their life every year due to disease

Its lead author Gary Giovino has pointed out that 100 million lives were lost prematurely due to tobacco use in the last century. "In the absence of effective actions, about one billion people worldwide will die prematurely in the next century from tobacco use," Giovino has been quoted as saying. Worse, most of these deaths will come in lower and middle-income countries.

While quit rates are high in countries like the USA and UK, they are abysmally low in countries like India and China which is home to a combined total of 575 million smokers.

The study concluded that the tobacco industry's promotion of its products through subtle surrogate advertising is more effective that the anti-tobacco ones put forward by governments. "Our data reflect industry efforts to promote tobacco use," said the study. "These include marketing and mass media campaigns by companies that make smoking seem glamorous, especially for women. The industry's marketing efforts also equate tobacco use with Western themes, such as freedom and gender equality."