Hindu women in Visakhapatnam, South India, have twice the incidence of hard-palate carcinoma as do men. Of 600 oral and oropharyngeal carcinomas diagnosed atthe King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam, from September 1970 to October 1973, nearly half occurred among females. Cancers in fe.males tended to develop at younger ages than in males and included a high proportion (73.8%) of hard-palate neoplasms. The estimated risk of developing hard-palate carcinoma was 132 times greater in women who smoked chuttas in reverse than in other women.