Smoking, chewing and drinking in Ban Pong, Northern Thailand

The unusual pattern of oral cavity and respiratory tract cancers in Chiang Mai Province, Northern Thailand led to this descriptive study of smoking, drinking and chewing in a rural community in Chiang Mai Province. A high propertion of adults were smokers and both males and females had very high estimated lifetime tobacco tar exposures. Variation in additives mixed with tobacco in traditional cigars and differences in smoking may be related to different respiratory cancer patterns in males and females. Manufactured cigarettes were little smoked, and then mainly by young men and those of higher socioeconomic status. Betel nut chewing, found commonly in other parts of S.E. Asia, was found only among the old, but chewing of miang, a fermented tea-leaf preparation, was common in all age groups, and was generally accompanied by smoking. Drinking of alcoholic beverages was rare and infrequent.