Call to stub out chronic Pacific smoking stats

28 May, 2001
Media Release

Call to stub out chronic Pacific smoking stats
49% of Cook Island women are likely to be smokers...

The Heart Foundation is calling for Pacific Island smokers living in New Zealand to quit the deadly addiction that threatens to destroy their lives, and the lives of their families.

The charity hopes the message will reach Cook Islands women in particular - as recent data shows 49% are still smokers, the highest proportion of all Pacific Island groups surveyed.

Smoking rates amongst men and women in other Pacific cultures are also unacceptably high – figures which simply must change according to Heart Foundation cardiac care manager Stewart Eadie.

His call comes as the Heart Foundation prepares to mark World Smokefree Day 2009 in Otara town centre today, May 28, where activities to help smokers kick the habit will be underway from 11am – 1pm

Mr Eadie says a report carried out by Ponniah and Bloomfield that breaks down smoking trends according to ethnicity and age, has shown for the first time that ex-smokers in New Zealand now outnumber smokers.

But he says while the number of smokers nationally are declining, Pacific women are bucking the trend.

“This is not a healthy trend and not the news any of us want to hear,” says Mr Eadie.

“The report quite clearly shows that in the past decade more Pacific women have taken up smoking, and is reflected particularly by the increasing percentage of younger Pacific females smoking.

“And if you are a male of Pacific Island decent you are almost twice as likely to die from smoking related deaths – heart disease, stroke and cancer –than a European,” he says.

In fact, Mr Eadie says tobacco smoking kills nearly 5,000 New Zealanders annually.

“We are talking one in five non-Maori smokes compared with almost one in two Maori and one in three Pacific people. Maori women continue to have the highest smoking prevalence at 50% and obviously that is something we want to see a dramatic decline in, but individuals have to take ownership in this and they need support mechanisms along the way,” says Mr Eadie.
“For now our focus is on our Pacific communities and we just hope that our activities in Otara today will help Pacific Island people take stock of these statistics because the figures are predicting a very bleak outlook for the collective health of their communities.”

Mr Eadie says health services must become more targeted towards engaging the community to take up a smokefree attitude and providing targeted cessation services.

“This could come in the form of more focused individual support but what these statistics quite blatantly show is that as a nation we need a far stronger focus on Pacific people and their needs.

“That’s the kind of work the Heart Foundation is driven to continue with, alongside the likes of Ash and the Smokefree Coalition, who we are working very closely with at community level throughout New Zealand. We are all here to help and want to make a difference,” says Mr Eadie.

ENDS

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