Chinese tobacco industries target women consumers

New Delhi, May 29 (ANI): Chinese tobacco industries have now shifted their focus to women as their targets for selling cigarettes, creating a surge in the number of women smokers in the country.

The 2010 China Tobacco Control Report says that 3 percent of women in China are smokers.

The companies are investing heavily in advertisements to encourage women to smoke, portraying smoking as associated with beauty and liberation.

To persuade women into smoking, the companies also sold "light" and "fruit-flavoured" cigarettes, which were in fact no less harmful, it said.

"The low-income and less-educated women were more vulnerable to such campaigns," Xinhua quoted Yang Gonghuan, head of the Tobacco Control Office, as saying.

He also stressed that the government should take action and impose restrictions on tobacco advertising and promotion targeting women.

Compared with male smokers, female smokers suffer more consequences, such as increased risks of premature senility, menstrual disorders and breast cancer, said the report. (ANI)