The New Straits Times, August 24, 1998
A scientific journal was recently quoted as saying girls who smoke are 30 per cent more likely to be overweight, tend to overeat and are twice as likely to be worried about their body image than non-smokers.
Last week, another study involving about 1,000 British and Canadian schoolgirls reveled that "weight control is a major reason teenaged girls take up smoking".
Most smokers also wanted to be considerably thinner than they were and were twice as likely as others to induce vomiting after overeating. Twenty-five per cent of the girls said that smoking made them less hungry and that they use smoking "instead of eating".
"They are using cigarettes as a way of controlling their weight and taking pounds off their weight for years of their life," said the lead researcher.
This new finding should sound yet another alarm bell to all parents of those concerned about the health of Malaysians. Not that overweight and overeating are healthy; but to control body weight and problems of overeating by smoking is even more hazardous.
To associate weight control with smoking is a rather vicious thing, since there have been indications that although, on average, smokers consume less, this is not attributable to a lower calorie intake. Smokers may actually consume more calories than non-smokers.
The apparent explanation for smokers' lower body weight is that smoking boosts the metabolic process.
This is one of the reasons former smokers tend to gain weight after quitting smoking.
In 1996, another piece of research that reviewed smoking among adolescent girls had this to say: As early as the 1900s, US tobacco companies recognised a largely untapped market in women, and began to pitch advertising campaigns to them.
Contemporary themes included tobacco as a symbol of independence, a rite of passage to adulthood, a sign of success, and a way to relax in social situations.
Tobacco use was also portrayed as being the norm, and prevalent, with ads featuring fit young models engaged in vigorous outdoor activities, and descriptive terms such as "fresh", "light", "natural", "smooth", "clean" and "pure".
The omnipresence of cigarette adertisements in periodicals read mainly by young women creates the perception that smoking is more widespread and normative than it is.
For example, the article pointed out that the explicit linking of cigarette smoking with weight control has been promulgated in cigarette advertising from as far back as 1990, when Brand X was advertised with the slogan "Reach for a Brand X instead of a sweet today".
Although such direct advertising is generally forbidden (ironically, because smoking is regarded as dangerous), the present strategy is to indirectly associate the weight-controlling properties of cigarettes by using brands associated with "slenderness", and "slimness", typified by popular teenaged models.
To a certain extent, the Malaysian scenario is worse; the all-pervasive and powerful media ceaselessly project the images above. There also seems to be an increasing number of occasions during which women (and men) on television are depicted smoking.
Malaysian women represent a lucrative market to the tobacco industry. The percentage, to date, of Malaysian women who smoke is still considered small.
This proves a formidable challenge to all, especially to health-conscious parents and the community, to see to it that smoking among teenagers (particularly girls) will not increase.
It is an uphill fight, because the tobacco industry is prepared to spend millions of ringgit to subvert our youth. In 1996, for example, the US tobacco industry reportedly spent US$12.6 million (about RM50 million) a day on tobacco advertisements targeting women and men.
In trying to protect the health of our youth, we need more support from government planners and policy-makers. We should put an end to all forms of indirect tobacco advertisements associated with false ideas of what is attractive, sexy, fun-loving and socially outgoing.
Adolescent girls in search of an identity will invariably fall prey to the self-serving strategies of tobacco companies
