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Shining a lighter on the dark side of gender equality

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Summary of story from the Vancouver Sun, August 17, 2011

Women’s freedom to smoke may have been a result of feminism, but researchers have found that this particular liberation came at an extra cost to women’s health.

It is already known that women smokers are at twice the risk of lung cancer compared to their male counterparts.

Now research from the University of Minnesota and John Hopkins University suggests that women who smoke have an increased chance of developing coronary heart disease.

The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 86 earlier studies, covering four million subjects in total. They found that women smokers are 25 per cent more likely to develop coronary heart disease than male smokers.

What is more, the risk increases by two per cent a year, meaning that long-term female smokers are at an even greater risk.

It is unclear why women are at a greater risk. One reason suggested by the researchers is that it could be the result of women taking in more toxins while smoking.

Rates of smoking have gone down considerably in recent years in Western countries such as Canada, in which the proportion of women smoking has decreased form 38 per cent in 1965 to 17.4 per cent in 2010.

The developing world is becoming an increasingly important market for the tobacco industry, where companies’ advertising preys on young women.

The World Health Organisation estimates that the number of women smokers in the world will double by 2025, creating significant healthcare burdens for developing countries and damaging women’s lives.

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