A call was issued by World Health Organization to particularly highlight the negative effects of tobacco on girls and women on World No Tobacco Day that was observed here on Monday.

According to E. Vidhubala, Tobacco Cessation Centre, Adyar Cancer Institute, usage of tobacco among women is not a new problem in India. “Tobacco use, especially chewing tobacco, has been going on for ages in our rural areas and it is pretty common,” she adds.

It has been said that, in fact, for a lot of aged women in the society, the “vethalai potti” (betel leaf box), which is full of wads of tobacco, came along as part of their dowry.

Vidhubala said, “Some of them are so proud of their boxes, they treat them almost like jewel boxes. They do not seem to understand that it could be dangerous for them”.

It is said that the team reached out to the community to talk to the women, since there were a lot of women who did not come to the TCC.

It has been rationalised by Vidhubala that the cause for the gender focus in 2010 is because several young women and city girls have started smoking and chewing of tobacco.

According to data from WHO, usage of tobacco is increasing among women internationally.

The Global Youth Tobacco Survey 2009 has revealed that the occurrence of usage of tobacco among 13 to 15-year-old schoolkids is 14.6%, with 19% boys and 8.3% girls taking in tobacco in some form.

It has been said that young girls’ health is highly influenced by tobacco, thus leading to menstrual problems, hormonal instability, infertility, premature delivery and low birth weight babies.