The National Institutes of Health is funding a program to convince female “light-smokers” in Brazil to kick their bad habit, at a cost to American taxpayers of $653,190.“There is a great need for the development of gender-relevant tobacco control efforts,” the description of the study on the NIH website reads. “We have established community and institutional capacity to promote gender-relevant tobacco control efforts among women in a tobacco producing states in Brazil.”
Scientists are hoping their research will allow them to design a culturally- and gender-specific “intervention” convincing Brazilian women not to light up.
“The goals of the network are to reduce tobacco use and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) among women in Paraná [southern Brazil], and to develop a cadre of well-trained researchers who will continue to address comprehensive tobacco control strategies at multiple levels,” the grant application said.
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