There are women who smoke living in every territory in the world. But the proportion of women who smoke varies from 1% in Azerbaijan to 47% in Guinea. Of the total world female population over the age of 15 years, 10% are smokers. Some girls start to smoke before they reach the age of 15. The Americas are home to 29% of the world’s 232 million female smokers. In the last 2000 years people started to smoke and chew tobacco. In the past 300 years a tobacco industry developed. This industry grew huge in the last 100 years with the invention of automated cigarette rolling machines.

“If the tobacco industry hates a policy then you can guarantee it’s successful in reducing the number of cigarettes smoked.” Simon Chapman, 2001