Policy on cigarette advertising and coverage of smoking and health in European women's magazines.

Abstract

Until recently cigarette smoking has been more common among men than women and the death rates from smoking related diseases have been higher among men. This picture is changing.' Recent figures show that rates of cigarette smoking among 15 to 24 year old women in the European Community are at 34%- nearly as high as those among men (39%).2 In several countries more teenage girls smoke than teenage boys.`This is mainly because the decline in cigarette smoking has been less rapid among women than men. Smoking now kills over 106 000 women in the European Community each year and at least double this in Europe as a whole.6 Death rates from lung cancer in women are increasing and in Scotland have overtaken those from breast cancer.