Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
A very good question, but one which misses the point slightly. These changes are generational. We're looking at a major, population-wide decline over 60 years, so an increase within part of the population during a span of less than 20 years has to be seen within that limited context.
Smoking was historically less aimed at women; there's some useful info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_and_smoking
... which while slanted at the USA is I think still relevant to the UK situation. It suggests that around the 1950s, fewer than 40% of women were smoking and the tobacco companies were marketing at women aggressively. This would account for the counter-trend rise in female smoking rates.
Of course, it might also demonstrate the power of marketing in the face of medical warnings, thereby adding weight to the current proposals to eliminate what remains of tobacco marketing in this country. |
True, but the reason I posted that was because I thought the stats posted in the original BBC article are a bit suspect. It claims 80% of men smoked in the 50s, and then goes on to say that by 1975 45% of adults smoked, which tells only half the story. Sure smoking decreased in men over that period, but it increased in women. Whether the stats are presented in that way because that's all that's available or because the picture (mass decrease in smoking) is more compelling, I don't know, but it's a fact that levels of smoking in the population did not fall from 80% in the 50s to ~45% in the 70s. They did in men, but levels actually increased in women.