The number of women dying of lung cancer in Australia has soared by 36.3 per cent over the past decade.
That’s compared to a lesser increase of 9.3 per cent in men.
Lung cancer has overtaken breast cancer as the biggest killer of women in the country.
Women dying of lung cancer has soared by 36.3 per cent over the past decade (stock image)
Last year there were 670 more deaths caused by lung cancer than breast cancer.
Health experts say the tobacco industry’s advertising techniques have contributed to the increasing number of women falling victim to lung cancer.
In the 1980s and 90s women were heavily targeted with feminised ‘slim’ and ‘light’ products for sale.
‘That’s exactly what we’re seeing with women now, where they took up smoking later and now we see that wave of lung cancers cresting,’ Sarah White from Cancer Council Victoria told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Previously unpublished hospitalisation data reveals more women are being admitted to hospital to undergo lung cancer surgery than men.
Between 2010 and 2015, there was a whopping 46.5 per cent increase in women undergoing the surgery compared to a 30.5 percent rise in men.
The new data shows that while smoking rates have dramatically tumbled over the years, young women go against this trend.
The rate of smoking among 18 to 24-year-old women increased from 14.8 to 15.1 per cent between 2012 and 2015, while it has fallen for young men from 18.3 per cent to 12.8 per cent.
Health experts say young women are smoking more and they try their first cigarette at a younger age.
‘We saw this big lag period where there used to be lots of men smoking and that started to drop off and then we saw lung cancer really increasing 15 to 20 years later,’ Sarah White from Cancer Council Victoria said.
Lung cancer has overtaken breast cancer as the biggest killer of women in Australia (stock image of healthy lungs (left) and smoker’s lungs (right)
On average females are smoking their first full cigarette at 16 – slightly younger than males – most likely influenced by cigarette-puffing models and actors on social media.
‘The ads are gone but it hasn’t stopped the influence of celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Ruby Rose and people like that in the modelling world who post photos of themselves smoking,’ she said.
‘For young people who smoke, it’s hard for them to see into the future and they think they’re ‘bulletproof’, but sadly we’re seeing the consequences of those belief decades later.’
Women smoke younger and are undergoing more lung cancer surgery than men (stock image)