By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
A survey showed that more male teenagers start smoking due to peer pressure, while more women became smokers following divorce, death of a spouse or job loss.
The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs said, after surveying 71,404 middle and high school students and an unspecified number of people between 19 and 39 years old, women start smoking under the influence of personal issues and men due to social and environmental issues.
The less female teenagers exercise, the more they tend to smoke, it said. Those who skip breakfast, drink alcohol or suffer from depression were also more likely to become smokers, it said.
A separate report implied that tobacco companies were responsible for enticing more women to smoke.
Separately, Yonhap News Agency quoted the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine research team as having reported that British American Tobacco and Philip Morris portrayed smoking women as liberal, independent and successful in the late 1980s when they started marketing here.
They used such words as ``slim'' ``super slim'' ``light'' and ``mild'' on product labels to obviate any negative perceptions, it reported.
The smoking rate among 20- and 30-somethings jumped to 13 percent in 1998 from 1.6 percent in 1988.
The report quoted Prof. Kelly Lee as saying that tobacco companies were successful in marketing in the 1960s and 70s in the United States, when women started to call for equality and independence.
It showed tobacco companies rode high in the 1980s, when women more actively fought social prejudice and discrimination
The female smoking rate here has been increasing every year, marking 4.1 percent in 2008, up 2.3 percent in 2006.