High levels of smoking among Saudi’s young women

Sixty five percent of Saudi secondary schoolgirls and 45 percent of the country’s intermediate schoolgirls are ‘smokers’, according to a story in Arab News quoting the results of a recently-published survey.

The survey, conducted by the Faculty of Medicine at the Jeddah-based King Abdulaziz University, said the rates of smoking posed a ‘real threat’ to the health of Saudi women in the long term.

In an earlier study, Najran University was said to have found that one-third of the Saudi population smoked on a regular basis.

And, according to a story in the Al-Madina daily, Saudi Arabia ranks second and fifth respectively at the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) and global levels in respect of the proportion of female smokers.

The rise in the number of female teenagers taking up smoking has been blamed on their wider exposure to the cultures of foreign countries through the increased use of social media and mobile applications, and to the spread of electronic cigarettes.

The definition of a smoker, as used by those conducting the surveys, was not given in the story.