While the majority of women in the country do not smoke, they make up the greatest number of victims of second-hand smoke, according to the Bureau of Health Promotion.
“Typically, women are exposed to second-hand smoke from their fathers during childhood, from their husbands after marriage and from their sons when they get older,” said Chiu Shu-ti (邱淑媞), director-general of the bureau.
While 96 percent of Taiwanese women do not smoke, 20.3 percent of females are exposed to second-hand smoke at home and in 85 percent of the cases, the source of the potential carcinogen is their fathers, Chiu said, citing a 2010 nationwide smoking survey.
The source of the second-hand smoke to which women are exposed differs with age, the poll found.
For those aged between 18 and 24 years, the main source of second-hand smoke tends to be their father; from 25 to 55, it is their husbands; and after 55, it becomes their sons, the poll showed.
Women are inhaling four or five times more second-hand smoke at home than in the workplace, Chiu said, adding that this amounts to “a form of domestic violence that puts women’s health at risk.”
Last month, a survey of 11-to-18-year-olds revealed that 20.4 percent of the group were exposed to second-hand smoke in the home and that their fathers were the source of the smoke in more than 70 percent of the cases.
The health bureau appealed to smokers to quit, not just for their own health, but also for the sake of their children.
Entertainer Hsu Feng (徐風), who starred in an anti-smoking campaign ad for the bureau, made a similar appeal.
Looking pale and drawn, Hsu said he suffers from cancer of the esophagus, mouth, lungs, trachea and pelvis as a result of smoking for more than 50 years.
Hsu said he started smoking in junior-high school and never stopped.
“My two younger brothers, who also smoked, died of nasopharyngeal and oral cancer,” he said.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS