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20% of female hotel workers are smokers: survey

The Taipei City Government released a survey yesterday showing that close to 20 percent of female hotel workers are smokers, as opposed to 9.52 percent of adult women overall.

Among the smokers, close to 59 percent were under 39 years old. More than 64 percent of them consume at least half a pack of cigarettes a day.

The participants, however, were divided on the idea of banning smoking in work places. While 50.8 percent said that smoking should be banned in offices, 46.2 percent said smoking should be allowed in designated areas.

The survey, jointly conducted by National Taiwan Normal University and Zhongshan District Health Center last year, focused on studies of smoking habits among 6,000 female employees working at over 20 large hotels in Taipei City's Zhongshan District.

Based on the number of employees in each hotel, the study set the proportion for each and randomly selected 470 of them as its sample. The hotels were selected because they include almost all the major ones in the city and are in general more compliant with government regulations.

The survey results, released on the eve of the official implementation of special health tax on cigarettes, also attempted to address the increase in smoking among women.

Although the government has increased the tobacco tax, placed warning labels on the cigarette packs and even campaigned for years for "smoke free" working environments, these efforts have apparently not hampered the increase in female smoking.

Tsai Shui-fu (蔡水福), section chief of the city's health promotion section, said more tobacco businesses are now eying female consumers in developing nations in Asia, such as Cambodia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, and try to attract their attention with innovative marketing strategies.

He said the city should work harder to educate working women on the hazards caused by tobacco. It also should tell them that one is not exempted from health risks by smoking "light" cigarettes.

Tsai said the special health tax will not help reduce smoking.

"It is only a NT$5 increase from the previous tax," Tsai said, "Unless the price of each pack, such as Long Life, can be raised to NT$100, it will not make any difference."

Lin Ching-lee (林清麗), director of the tobacco control division of the John Tung Foundation, said that the government should not keep saying that education is the solution.

The most important thing, she said, is the for the government to fully implement the Tobacco Hazards Control Statute (菸害防制法).

"They should find out why women, who traditionally pay more attention to health, tidiness and family obligations, are now willing to put all these behind and smoke," Lin said.

Lin said the tax increase will not reduce the number of smokers, either among men and women. The price per pack, she said, has only increased 20 percent -- from NT$40 to NT$50 -- since the government began allowing the importation of tobacco in 1987.
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