Women and Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General 2001
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[Suggested anchor lead:
Over the past two decades, three million American Women have died
prematurely from smoking. A new report from the Surgeon General's office
looks at how smoking affects America's women and the news is not good.
(Teresa Bruce) has more.]
[Woman smoking]
[Footage from press conference]
MS. BRUCE:
Women who smoke like men, die like men. That's what the Surgeon
General said today at a press conference in the nation's capital. He
released the first report since 1980 to look at the dangers of tobacco use
to women.
A key finding... since 1987, more women have died of lung cancer than
breast cancer.
[Shots of women on the street]
[CU smoking shots]
Women and men who smoke share the same risk for smoking-related diseases
such as cancer, heart disease, and emphysema. But women also experience
other dangers.
U.S. SURGEON GENERAL DAVID SATCHER: Women who smoke can have
complications with pregnancy. They can have low birth weight. But in
addition to that women who smoke can have problems with delayed fertility
and maybe even problems with fertility. So all of those are concerns. Infant
mortality increases in the babies of women who smoke.
[Men and women smoking outside office buildings]
MS. BRUCE:
Cigarette smoking was once considered a primarily male behavior, but
the number of female smokers has nearly caught up to the number of male
smokers.
[Young women smoking on street]
[Woman buying cigarettes]
The report shows that nearly all women who smoke started as teens, and
trends show that smoking rates seem to be on the rise among young women 18
to 24.
[Images from cigarette advertising]
[Surgeon General in office]
U.S. SURGEON GENERAL DAVID SATCHER: We estimate that the tobacco
industry is investing over $8 billion a year in marketing tobacco. And women
have been a primary target. The whole concept of women exhibiting their
independence and success by smoking continues to be a strategy of the
tobacco industry. Were very concerned about that.
[Christy walking up to podium]
MS. BRUCE:
Cover model Christy Turlington and Secretary of Health and Human
Services Tommy Thompson joined the Surgeon General to draw attention
to the issue.
Cover Model Christy Turlington:
I think in the role that I have as a model and as a person in the public, my
effort is to demystify those glamorous images that have been so prevalent
for so many years. I also want to encourage some of my peers to do the same.
Secretary of Health and Human
Services Tommy G. Thompson: What starts out as a simple puff is
turning into a death sentence for thousands of women. And we cannot afford
to lose one woman in our society, particularly from needless smoking-related
deaths.
MS. BRUCE: This is Teresa Bruce reporting
[End of video tape.]
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