TEENAGE girls were warned yesterday that they are ''trading pounds off their weight for years off their life'' after research revealed that many are taking up smoking in a desperate attempt to stay slim, writes Keith Sinclair.
A study of 3000 girls from Britain and Canada - which also prompted a call for a ban on youth-orientated marketing by tobacco firms - showed that 20% of all girls smoke and that 30% of those who do are more likely to be overweight and prone to eat too much.
Losing weight was given as the main reason for starting to smoke and almost one-third of all the girls interviewed thought they would put on weight and eat more if they quit.
The Cancer Research Campaign study assessed 1936 girls in London and 832 girls in Ottawa, Canada, aged between 11 and 18. It showed that the habit was strongest among 15 and 16-year-olds and that girls were up to three times more likely to take up smoking after starting their periods, when normal changes in body shape often lead to worries about weight.
Commenting on the findings, chief researcher Professor Arthur Crisp, from St George's Hospital Medical School, London, said: ''What is worrying about this study is that it concerns a number of ordinary schoolgirls who are showing they are unhappy with how they look.
''Not only do they feel too fat but they are also frightened of losing control of their eating. More worrying still is the fact that they are using cigarettes as a way of controlling their weight, and trading pounds off their weight for years off their life.''
Experts believe weight watching could be one reason why smoking is on the increase in young girls who are refusing to heed health warnings.
Cancer Research Campaign director general Professor Gordon McVie said: ''This study portrays a desperately sad picture of teenage girls' self-image and their unsuccessful attempts to attain an idealised, lower weight. But smoking is not the way to do it.''
Previous research by Professor Crisp has shown a strong link between girls who smoke and incidence of the eating disorders bulimia, binge-eating and anorexia.
The anti-smoking group Ash (Action on Smoking and Health) yesterday called on the tobacco industry to halt youth orientated marketing immediately.
Ash director Clive Bates said: ''For some teenage girls smoking has more in common with desperate conditions such as anorexia and bulimia than it does with girl power.
''The tragedy of smoking is that the outward defiant and independent face of the young smoker is often concealing terrible teenage anxiety and self-loathing.''
He said ''cynical and predatory'' tobacco industry marketeers had spent millions persuading teenagers that smoking will help them be glamorous, sexy, independent and smart.
Ash pointed out that although smoking may cause weight loss by affecting the appetite and metabolism, it also interfered with the best form of weight control - exercise.
Ms Kay Samson, project officer at Glasgow 2000, Greater Glasgow Health Board's smoking prevention project, said recent figures have indicated that more than 32% of 18 to 23-year-old females smoke and that it recognised that girls using smoking to control their weight was a problem.
She said: ''Girls in particular have the pressure to stay thin. They see the role models such as models like Kate Moss on the catwalks and they see them smoking in the newspapers and they give this illusion that smoking helps you stay thin.
''We do recognise that, although the adult population are certainly more aware of the ill effects of smoking and will make an attempt to stop, it is very difficult for young people to comprehend that 10 years down the line there is an increased possibility of having some form of smoking related disease because they live for today and not for 10 years down the line.''
Mr Alistair Ramsay, adviser on health education at Glasgow City Council, said it also recognised that attempting to lose weight was one of many reasons why young people smoked, adding that ''we have tried to make sure that the broad health education programmes recognise the need to use the opportunities in the curriculum to bolster people's self esteem, especially young girls''.
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics last October revealed a jump in smoking rates among young teenage girls, with 15% of 11 to 15-year-olds being regular smokers in 1996.
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