Need a Last Minute Gift for Mom?
May 06, 2011
Lung cancer — not breast cancer — is the leading cancer killer among women, and smoking causes 80 percent of these deaths.
So there's no better gift for Mom this Mother's Day than giving her the encouragement, support and information she needs to help her stop smoking.
The tobacco industry has long targeted women and girls with marketing that makes smoking seem sexy, fun and glamorous. Just recently, the European Journal of Public Health reported that some tobacco companies even spiked cigarettes with chemical diet aids, to capitalize on smokers' fears — especially among women — that they would gain weight if they quit.
The results have been a toll of death and disease that robs families of their mothers, sisters and daughters.
Though the rate of lung cancer deaths among women recently has started to decline, each year more than 170,000 American women die from smoking, and 12,100 kids lose their mothers to tobacco use annually. Despite the well-known dangers to both mother and child when a woman smokes during pregnancy, about 10 percent of pregnant women smoke.
Kids and fathers can make a difference this Mothers' Day by giving a smoking mom the gift of better health, with the tools she needs to quit.
It's better than brunch — and can last a (longer) lifetime.
Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention