A year-long smoking awareness campaign aimed at women has been launched by a Bahrain-based anti-smoking society.

The campaign is in line with this year's World No-Tobacco Day (May 31) under the theme: Gender and tobacco, with an emphasis on marketing to women.

In Bahrain, seven per cent of women aged 20 to 64 smoke some form of tobacco, including cigarettes and sheesha, according to the most recent Chronic Health Survey conducted by the Health Ministry.

Bahrain Anti-Smoking Society head Dr Kadhem Al Halwachi claimed tobacco companies had already attracted a male audience and were now targeting the female market, by making the cigarette packets more appealing to women.

"The cigarettes for women are nice and long and there are flavours," he said.

"The tobacco companies show women that if they want to be slim, smoking will help to decrease their appetite. In addition, locally in Bahrain many places advertise free sheesha for women and this encourages them to smoke,” he added.

The society has trained 37 people to give talks to women in clubs, schools, organisations and companies about the dangers of smoking and tips on how to quit.

It is also raising awareness about the dangers of smoking through radio, TV and newspaper articles, as well as holding events at malls across the country.

"We want to draw women's attention to the dangers of smoking and the effect it can have if she smokes while pregnant," said Dr Al Halwachi, who is also Health Ministry anti-smoking co-ordinator.

"The size of the baby will be small, his (or her) IQ will be less than others and nicotine will be released in the milk. If women smoke, they will also look older than their age and be older inside."

Twenty per cent of people in Bahrain aged 20 to 64 smoke some form of tobacco, including cigarettes and sheesha, according to the Chronic Health Survey.

However, Dr Al Halwachi said if the survey had included those aged below 20, the figure would be around 27 per cent.

In addition, if the survey included those who had smoked in the past but no longer did, the figure would be 34 per cent, he added.

Globally there are one billion smokers and 20 per cent of them are women, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

It says 1.5 million women die each year from tobacco use and the number could increase to 2.5m by 2030 if no action is taken.

Bahrain's health officials said the real percentage of women smokers to be in the double figures, especially because tobacco companies are targeting their products to attract more female consumers.

They added it is also difficult to obtain the exact percentage of women smokers because they are often reluctant to admit that they smoke. – TradeArabia News Service