In a survey conducted by National Health Education, Information and Communication Center, Nepal, Nepalese women came out as the top tobacco consumers in the world. Around 20 percent of Nepalese women consume tobacco.
Badri Bahadur Khadka, a senior health education administrator said that previously, women in remote village areas used to consume tobacco but now many modern day educated women consume tobacco and the trend is growing.
This high consumption has serious effects along with causing different types of cancers, TB and other tobacco related diseases and many other health problems.
Dr. R.P. Baral of Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital said that he had found many women who smoke up to 40 sticks of cigarettes a day. He said that smoking more than half a pack a day would cause infertility and irregular menstrual cycles and smoking during pregnancy would cause serious complications, premature labour, infant mortality and miscarriage.
For this reason, the World Health Organization defined smoking during pregnancy as a crime.
What is interesting is that tobacco consumption is growing in developing countries while declining in developed countries. In a survey conducted by the Ministry of Finance it has been found out that cigarette production in Nepal in 2007-08 was 1079.9 million sticks while in 2008-09 it was 120070 million sticks followed by 131000 million sticks in 2009-10.
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