OCR Text |
Show PEEIHL Eubeirmtirngi wmmvm timm smtoMman PRIBLH1! An Interview with Eleanor Holmes Norton, Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights The City of New York "EffB EHBTHEH Q. How do you explain the fact that from 1955-6- 6 the percentage of women smokers increased while the rate for men 96DSW wriaMs. 0(D smmg Trying to stay young or at least look that way is an obsession in this mod age. And looking young may be even tougher for women who smoke. Facial wrinkles like crowsfcet may be caused more by cigarette smoke than by exposure to sun and wind according to Dr. H. W. Danicll of Redding, California. Dr. Danicll studied 1104 men and women between the ages of 30 and 70. Each subject was asked to fill out a questionnaire about his or her smoking habits, sun exposure, weight changes, and medical history. Without seeing the questionnaires, the doctor first assigned each subject a wrinkle score from one to six. Closeup photographs were taken. And three other sets of observers also scored the pictures. Prominent wrinkling and heavy smoking were found to be related for all age groups. Dr. Danicll suggests that smoking may Cujse wrinkling because nicotine makes the small blood vessels con- tract. Over a period of time, he says, this might cause deterioration in skin tissue. The most striking finding, however, was the correlation between heavy wrinkling and heart attacks. Deep facial wrinkles, says Dr. Danicll, can be a significant warning sign. Smoking may or may not be a major factor causing wrinkles. All the evidence is not yet in. But the evidence is in on other conditions and diseases. The rates of death from lung cancer are 5 times higher for women who are heavy smokers compared with nonsmoking women. Their rates for chronic bronchitis and emphysema arc 3 times higher. And the number of women dying from these two diseases has doubled in the last decade. Your Tuberculosis dropped sharply? A. I'm not surprised. Think what was happening to women during those years. They were beginning to feel liberated, and this meant doing things that men were doing that were bad as well as good. Women even started smoking in the streets, something considered despicable years before. Now, however, I think were at the point where women recognize a lot of things men did were harmful. We want to be equal, but not copy bad habits. Q. Do you think women have been ploited by recent advertising aimed at them? A. No doubt about it. The first people to understand something about emerging liberation were the cigarette people. They le understood that smoking was an taboo for women and that one way younger women could react against the taboo was to take up a cigarette. The ads present smoking as the young, hip, new, thing to do. Women have got to see that exploitation for what old-sty- it is. Q. What themes do you think advertisers play on effectively? feminist angle, of beA. The straight-ou- t from liberated the old ways. The ing st angle. The angle of a woman on a date with a man, the cigarette adding the complete touch. Even the health angle showing the woman smoking while walking along the beach or through the woods. The cigarette manufacturers have linked smoking to every new life style of women. They don't show grandmothers smoking or . O. What do you think can be done to raise womens consciousness about smoking? A. Women usually have more healthful life styles than men so I think they re- spond to warnings about health. Women mothers like me have to think about protecting their own health in the childbearing years, and then they're responsible for keeping the whole family healthy eating right, sleeping enough, for & Respiratory enclose a contribution to help in the work of the association. . father's. Almost a million teenagers start smoking every year. The percentage of girls who smoke is now almost as high as boys. The sharpest increases for girls are at very young ages: 13, 14, and 15. T0d City & Zip Code CHRISTMAS SEALS. BEQUESTS AND MEMORIAL GIFTS FIGHT EMPHYSEMA, TUBERCULOSIS. AIR POLLUTION, SMOKING. jTS A MATTER OF LIFE AND BREATH. 1616 South 11th East, Salt Lake City, Utah Talaphona 4844456 84105 TroinMes GDff A TTdjeiragD MsnDwOW Diana Litherland Benjamin Bosse High School Evansville. Indiana the need to give reasons and excuses fur not smoking to the entire smoking population. I was first introduced to the prospect of smoking in the seventh grade. Being a verified goody goody I unreasonably assumed that anyone who smoked was a hood," and was wicked. In later years the number of smokers my age increased and it soon became apparent that my pure as Ivory soap and sweet as a rose attitude was wrong, and was influencing people against me. I still didn't want to mokc, so I began to turn over in m mind various alternatives. First I considered swearing a lot, but I AH my life, I have found so-call- ed . MOTHER Mothers who smoke set the same pattern for their children. Their daughters, especially. Of the teenagers who smoke, the highest percentage are from families where one or both parents smoke. Several studies show that girls tend to follow their mothers smoking behavior and disregard their like to Name Street Address. their cigarettes Jo handle their anger and their role confusion. Cigarettes do not eliminate such emotional discomforts as anger, but do displace them." If this is the case, different tactics may be needed to help women break the cigarette habit. They will have to learn more effective ways of dealing with all uncomfortable emotions. But Dr. Daniel Horn, director of the Public Health Services National Clearinghouse said, until relatively recently, women had to resist cultural pressures more than men did if they were to smoke . . . they fought harder to smoke and held onto the habit more they've DAUGHTER middle-age- d women. know more about how to quit smoking. Please send me information about emphysema and chronic bronchitis. I Do you have any feelings about the health and financial cost of smoking as it affects the woman consumer, particularly the poor woman? A. The conditions of the poor, especially in big cities, are so awful and life is such a drag for many poor women that smoking can seem like some escape. It's actually just one more burden for a poor woman and a minority woman, in particular to include in her budget another item that has no nutrition and no positive benefit whatsoever, only harmful effects. I think life is hard for such women and until society finds a way to make life less hard for them, its probably going to drive women to smoke in these circumstances, just as the men are often driven to drink. Q. Do you see quitting smoking as one action women themselves can take toward being liberated? A. When women, as well as men, free themselves from drugs of any kind which is what I consider smoking-th- ey are liberating themselves as human beings and starting to take some control over their own lives. sport-activiti- Disease Association would be glad to hear from you. Id ex- 0. Youve come a long way baby, but not when it comes to quitting smoking. Men have been getting the message and many have stopped smoking. Its the fair sex that clings to the habit. And this worries Surgeon General Jesse L. Stcinfcld. In the last 7 years, there has been an appreciable drop in smoking among men but regrettably there has been no comparable drop among women, he said. Why do women find it so difficult to stop smoking? Dr. Louis Bozzctti, staff psychiatrist with the National Institute of Mental Health, said, men and women smoke for different reasons. Women use get embarrassed too easily an.! im vocabulary is too small. Next I considered making people think I smoked even though 1 didn't. This would have involved carrying a pack of cigarettes in my purse and letting them fall out during class; holding a cigarette outside during the winter and letting people think my breath was smoke; and staining my fingers with yellow food coloring. Rather than going to the trouble of these, I decided to give up and be un- accepted. The reasons that I am still not smoking include my inability to light a match, my low income, a fear of having my teeth rot out, and a desire to stay alive. One main reason why I regret not smoking is that I always wanted to slink up to some tall, debonair man and hold a long cigarette out to him with my dainty hand and say in a sexy voice, Hi ya baby, gotta light? But with my luck he'd reply, Sorry, but I dont smoke. So why should I bother to smoke? and |