Tobacco.org

• Warning bells for fairer sex health 

Women in Orissa are lighting up the cancer stick or chewing tobacco more often than their counterparts in other states.

In a recent survey, the state stood second when it came to tobacco consumption among women, next only to Mizoram.

The percentage of girls (from 15 years and above) who chewed some form of tobacco in 1998 was 34.9 per cent. Now, according to National Family Health Survey, the percentage has risen to 50 per cent and more.

Similarly, the percentage of women smokers has increased from mere 0.9 per cent to 6 per cent.

More than 50 per cent of the women in the state, who are into tobacco consumption, are mainly from tobacco growing rural pockets where women use paan with zarda, gudakhu, gutkha, khaini, snuff, acorn nut, dhuan patra and gundi.

A growing number of rural women are now into smoking bidis or cigarettes, too,

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