Smoking exacts a heavy toll on women

As she came closer, I noted freckles. As she came even closer, I realized something else. There was a cigarette in her left hand.

It was one of those long, skinny-appearing cigarettes. As she passed directly by me, she took what could only be referred to as a deep drag. Her pudgy, pre-adolescent cheeks sucked in the smoke. As she brought that smoldering gray-white stick up to and into her mouth, my thought was ... she seems well-practiced.

That unanticipated and so very brief encounter has stayed with me. I simply can’t forget it. I try to forget it. But it keeps popping back into my mind. She has remained in my thinking, this girl-woman with her pigtails and her cigarette habit.

I wonder about her. Has another woman, perhaps a friend of her mother’s, told her that smoking causes lung cancer.? Has someone who cares about her said that lung cancer is the most common cancer among women and that there’s been a 600 percent increase since the 1950s or that the death rate of women from lung cancer is increasing?

I wonder if an aunt, maybe an older sister, has told her that smoking will not just take her life, it will define her life. It will affect her health, her finances, her appearance and her friendships. It will stain her teeth and wrinkle her skin. The clothes in her closet will smell like smoke; she will smell like smoke. She will age faster. And if she lives to be an older adult and is still smoking, she’s almost four times more likely to have significant memory problems.

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My 26-year-old niece has a history of smoking. She tells me she doesn’t like to think of herself as a smoker, but when she turned 25 and found she was counting packs per day, she realized she had to. She has tried to stop many times. This time it seems to be working. She’s using a medication (Wellbutrin) and running a slow but steady two miles a day. She’s envisioning herself (in writing) as a nonsmoker. She wants her mother to try it — the medication, the journaling, maybe even the running.

If women smoke, it’s more likely their daughters will too. And stopping is tougher for women. Research demonstrates they face unique and significant barriers when they try to quit. They have more complicated withdrawal symptoms and are less likely to benefit from a nicotine replacement. Women, too, are more inclined to relapse, especially if they encounter stresses. Women who are trying to quit and gain weight or experience moodiness and depression often opt to return to smoking.

I tell my niece — and my daughters (and myself) — that women can figure out anything. I say to them, let’s figure this out. Think about a world full of nonsmoking girls and women. Envision it clearly. Write it in your journals. Make it come true.

Sharon Johnson is an assistant professor in family and community development at OSU Extension and a member of the Senior Advisory Council. Reach her at s.johnson@oregonstate.edu.