Is Smoking More Harmful To Female Smokers?

In a recent study, women smokers were found to develop lung disease earlier than male smokers, and it takes less cigarette exposure to cause damage in women compared to men.

The research was conducted by Dr Inga-Cecilie Soerheim and researchers at the Bringham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and the University of Bergen in Norway.

Dr Soerheim said their analysis indicated that women may be more vulnerable to the effects of smoking as they may be more susceptible to the toxic effects of cigarette smoking.

A total of 954 people in Norway with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) – including lung problems from chronic bronchitis to emphysema – were tested. About 60 percent were men and 40 percent were women. All were either ex-smokers or current smokers.

Health official are especially concerned about COPD as more people are affected with this disease. It currently affects more than 200 million people worldwide, and the trend is rising. The most common symptoms are shortness of breath and coughing.

The study revealed that both groups had similar lung impairments. However, the researchers found that among the younger subjects and those who were light smokers, women had more severe disease and worse lung function than men.

“This means that female smokers in our study experienced reduced lung function at a lower level of smoking exposure and at an earlier age than men,” Dr Soerheim said.

“Many people believe that their own smoking is too limited to be harmful – that a few cigarettes a day represent a minimal risk,” she said. “However, in the low exposure group in this study, half of the women actually had severe COPD.”

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