Tag Archives: Aboriginal smoking

Feb 3 2016

NACCHO Smoking News: Plain packaging helping reinforce smoking risks among Aboriginal people

Smoking

“Too many of our people smoke and this is causing great harm in our communities,’’

“About 42 people cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are daily smokers – this is about three times the daily smoking rate for all Australian adults.

“Smoking is the number one cause of preventable disease and death for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Australia.”

National Coordinator of the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program, Professor Tom Calma

Aboriginal people have a greater understanding of the risks of smoking following the introduction of plain packaging of tobacco in Australia, new research shows.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were surveyed before and after the introduction of plain packaging for the study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

The study found that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were less likely to incorrectly believe that “some cigarette brands are more harmful than others” following the introduction of plain packaging.

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In addition, fewer younger Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (aged 18-29 years) believed that “some cigarette brands are more prestigious than others” following the change.

As a result of new laws introduced on 1 December 2012, all tobacco products sold in Australia must be in plain packaging which does not feature brand imagery, logos or promotional text. The drab, standardised packaging also includes large and graphic health warnings.

National Coordinator of the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program, Professor Tom Calma, said the findings showed that plain packaging was achieving its aims in Indigenous populations.

“Too many of our people smoke and this is causing great harm in our communities,’’ Professor Calma said.

“About 42 people cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are daily smokers – this is about three times the daily smoking rate for all Australian adults.

“Smoking is the number one cause of preventable disease and death for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Australia.

“This study shows that plain packaging is working among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to reduce the incorrect belief that cigarette brands can vary in the harm they cause.”

Study co-author Dr Sarah Durkin, of Cancer Council Victoria’s Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, said the findings were consistent with research across the Australian population showing that plain packs were diminishing the tobacco industry’s ability to use packs to mislead people about the harms of smoking.

“The findings show that preventing the use of misleading imagery on tobacco products is working in the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations to reduce incorrect beliefs about smoking.”

Quit Victoria Director Dr Sarah White said the high rate of smoking among Aboriginal people meant they carried a heavier burden of preventable death and disease, compared to the rest of the population.

“Reducing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who smoke is essential to prevent illness including cancer, heart disease and strokes,” Dr White said.

“Plain packaging is part of a comprehensive government strategy to reduce smoking in Australia and stop young people from picking up the habit.”

Professor Calma said the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program was using innovative, culturally appropriate approaches to reduce smoking in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

“With strong leadership and a comprehensive health workforce effort in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we can halve the Indigenous smoking rate over the next decade and give our people the opportunity to live long and healthy lives,’’ he said.

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Contact:  Kate Hagan, Quit Victoria Media Manager, 0438 058 406

For help to quit smoking, contact the Aboriginal Quitline on 13 7848

Jan 8 2016

NACCHO Aboriginal Health News: Plain packaging is a plain success for Aboriginal people

Smoking“ The Australian Government has an opportunity to continue, and to accelerate de-normalising tobacco use; addressing the cause of one in five of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths, the estimated 15,000 Australian tobacco related deaths, and the $31.5 billion in tobacco related social and economic costs each year.”

Professor Tom Calma AO, National Coordinator of the Tackling Indigenous Smoking project

As published in Croakey

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Editor: Melissa SweetAuthor: Tom Calmaon: January 07, 2016In: Indigenous health, public health, tobacco control

 

New research suggests that the 2012 introduction of plain packaging and larger pictorial health warnings on cigarette and tobacco packs is proving useful for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Professor Tom Calma AO, National Coordinator of the Tackling Indigenous Smoking project, provides an overview of the findings below, and cautions that more work is needed to reduce the toll of smoking among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The study, Plain packaging implementation: perceptions of risk and prestige of cigarette brands among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, was published by Raglan Maddox, Sarah Durkin andRay Lovett in the latest edition of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

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Tom Calma writes:

The introduction of plain packaging and associated health warnings has been a success for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, new research suggests.

Research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in the ACT and surrounding areas found they were better informed about the risks of smoking as a result of the policy.

Before its introduction, they were significantly more likely to mistakenly think that some brands of cigarettes were less harmful than others.

In addition, after the introduction of plain packs, there was a decrease in the proportion of younger Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people indicating that ‘some cigarette brands are more prestigious than others’.

The Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 and Regulations 2011 prohibits brand imagery, logos, promotional text, and includes restrictions on colour, format, size and materials of packaging, as well as brand and variant names on tobacco products.

Objectives of plain packaging are to reduce the ability of the retail packaging of tobacco products to mislead consumers about the harms of smoking; reduce the attractiveness and appeal of tobacco products to consumers, particularly young people; increase the noticeability and effectiveness of mandated health warnings; and through the achievement of these aims in the long term, as part of a comprehensive range of tobacco control measures, contribute to efforts to reduce smoking rates.

The study’s findings provide important support for regulatory measures to prohibit the use of misleading package imagery in product marketing, as prescribed in Articles 11, 12 and 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, as well as the key international and domestic leadership role of the Australian Government.

However, more work is required.

The Australian Government has an opportunity to continue, and to accelerate de-normalising tobacco use; addressing the cause of one in five of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths, the estimated 15,000 Australian tobacco related deaths, and the $31.5 billion in tobacco related social and economic costs each year.

In my role as National Coordinator – Tackling Indigenous Smoking, I am overseeing the Tackling Indigenous Smoking Programme to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities to reduce the number of people smoking and to encourage people not to take up smoking.

The Tackling Indigenous Smoking programme complements and leverages off tobacco control measures—such as plain packaging, increases in tax excise and smoke-free polices—by using innovative and culturally appropriate, community-based approaches to address uptake and smoking by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

In continuing to act locally, working nationally we should take the leadership role to improve, increase and establish national initiatives, such as improving accessibility to Nicotine Replacement Therapies (NRT), expanding smoke-free areas and establishing all prisons to be smoke-free across the country.

Reducing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who smoke is essential in realising the goal of closing the gap in health status equality and life expectancy.

With strong leadership and by working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves, we can halve the Indigenous smoking rate over the next decade and give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people more opportunity to live long and healthy lives.

Other key findings from the study:

  • It is fundamentally deceptive and misleading to allow a continuation in the perception that some cigarettes are less hazardous than others, including so-called ‘additive free’, ‘natural’ or ‘lower tar’ cigarettes, given that conventional cigarette brands present the same level of risk.
  • Government agencies committed to tobacco control should investigate regulating the use of brand imagery, logos and promotional text on tobacco.

For information on how to stop smoking, please call the Quitline on 13 78 48, visit www.icanquit.com.au or your local Aboriginal Medical Service, GP or medical practitioner.

Oct 13 2015

NACCHO Anti-Smoking NEWS: $10 million advertising campaign to reduce Indigenous smoking rates

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Some $10m from the National Tobacco Campaign will target Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities with a new anti-smoking advertising campaign, Minister for Rural Health Fiona Nash announced today.

“A new campaign will specifically target Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in an effort to reduce smoking rates,” Minister Nash said.

“The new campaign will complement the Tackling Indigenous Smoking programme and will build on the success of current and past campaigns. We expect the campaign to run on television, radio and online.

“After planning and concept testing is completed, a range of media and promotion activities will commence in the first half of 2016.”

According to the 2012-13 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, more than 40 per cent of Indigenous Australians over the age of 15 smoke on a daily basis.

“We must reduce indigenous smoking rates and this campaign is one tool in our drawer,” Minister Nash said.

“Tobacco smoking is responsible for around one in five deaths among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

“Tobacco smoking is the most preventable cause of ill health and early death among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” Minister Nash said.

“This is why we are building a range of targeted programmes and promotions to address this significant issue.”

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Aug 25 2014

NACCHO smoke free news: Aboriginal smoking program cuts risk widening the gap

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Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and early death among Indigenous Australians, with smoking responsible for about one in every five deaths.

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Among Indigenous Australians, tobacco use contributes to 80% of all lung cancer deaths, 37% of heart disease, 9% of all strokes and 5% of low birth-weight babies. And in central Australia, rates of pneumonia among children are reported to be the highest in the world, reaching 78.4 cases per 1,000 children every year.

Although we are seeing reductions in smoking rates across Australia, 42% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (TSI) people are daily smokers, compared to 16% in the non-Indigenous population. In some remote communities this estimate is as high as 83%.

Smoking is also higher among vulnerable groups: up to two-thirds of Indigenous women continue to smoke during pregnancy, and around 39% of young people aged 15 to 24 years are smoking daily.

You’d think governments would be redoubling their efforts to address the problem. Not so. In fact, the Australian government has recently announced funding cuts of A$130 million over five years to the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program, which amounts to more than one-third of the program’s annual funding.

Tackling Indigenous Smoking funds teams of six health workers to run tailored anti-smoking programs. Each is designed with input and involvement from each community and employ local quit-smoking role models who help other smokers quit by offering advice and support.

Benefits of quitting

We know that quitting smoking reduces the risks of heart disease, lung cancer and other smoking-related issues.

But there are also significant benefits for the health-care system and Australian longer-term budget’s. A recent South Australian study led by Professor Brian Smith, for instance, helped smokers to quit while in hospital and found a direct saving to the hospital budget of A$6,646 per successful quitter within just 12 months.

Another study estimated that the economic impact from just an 8% reduction in the prevalence of tobacco smoking in Australia would result in 158,000 fewer incident cases of disease, 5000 fewer deaths, 2.2 million fewer lost working days and 3000 fewer early retirements. Overall, an 8% reduction in smoking would reduce health sector costs by AU$491 million.

Assessing and funding what works

One of the complicating factors is that the success of Indigenous anti-smoking programs has been patchy. A review I recently published in the Cochrane Collaboration found significant shortcomings for Indigenous quit smoking and youth tobacco prevention programs.

Only one quit smoking study, which was performed in the Northern Territory by Dr Rowena Ivers, met the quality criteria. Dr Ivers’ study found that free nicotine patches might benefit a small number of Indigenous smokers. But none of the study participants completed the full course of nicotine patches and only seven people from the original total of 111 reported that they had quit smoking at six months.

This study suggests programs using nicotine patches can help Indigenous smokers to quit. But much more evidence is needed to determine what options really are the most effective.

Likewise, another review of tobacco prevention programs among young people found potentially harmful results, with one of the three identified studies showing lower smoking rates in the control population. This means that children who received the tailored tobacco prevention program did worse than the youth in the control group who received nothing at all.

It is important to continue evaluating Tackling Indigenous Smoking programs so we know whether or not they work and can direct funding to programs that make a difference. So it’s concerning that part of the funding that is being cut from the budget relates to reviewing these programs.

A long way to go

Five years into the Tackling Indigenous Smoking project, the government has invested a substantial amount of time and money into developing these culturally-tailored programs. Preliminary data released by the government in April found a 3.6% fall in Indigenous daily smoking rates between 2008 and 2013 and a reduction in smoking during pregnancy of 3%.

But cutting resources will make it impossible to meet the program’s ambitious goal of halving Indigenous smoking rates by 2018.

There is still a long way to go. Research shows many health-care workers and some doctors who treat smokers do not believe they have the skills or ability to offer effective preventive health advice. Worryingly, they also admit to the attitude of “even if I did, it’s not going to work, so why bother”.

This response tells us that much more work and subsequently funding is needed to really address the health gaps that remain between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Tobacco use will remain a problem within our society for as long as we continue to allow it to be one.

May 22 2013

NACCHO condemns Aboriginal flag “skins for smokes” that covers up health warnings

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NACCHO condems the use of “skins for smokes”  that uses cultural content and copyright imagery on cigarette packets to  negate health promotion efforts, such as Australia’s recent introduction of plain packaging laws and calls on the Federal Government to ban the sale under that legistlation

Authors: Karen McPhail-Bell, Chelsea Bond & Michelle Redman-MacLaren (see details Blow)

For just $5.29 Australians can now purchase “Skins” from local, independent grocers to cover their cigarette packet with the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander flag.

We argue that this use of cultural content and copyright[1] imagery on cigarette packets negates health promotion efforts, such as Australia’s recent introduction of plain packaging laws and the subsequent dismissal of a legal challenge from the tobacco industry.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people smoke over twice the rate of non-Indigenous Australians (ABS 2010). Health promotion practitioners working to reduce these smoking rates face the challenge of the broader historical and cultural context of smoking behaviour.

In response, health promotion efforts have endeavoured to shift, displace and resist the notion that unhealthy behaviours, such as smoking, are inherently part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.

Some examples of this approach include Queensland Health’s Smoke-free Support Program (Smoking: It could cost us our culture), the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health’s Deadly Choices campaign and other initiatives beyond Queensland (for example, Adams et al 2010; Basinkski and Parkinson 2001).

Brady (2002) has noted how throughout colonial contact, Europeans have exploited Aboriginal addiction to nicotine and therefore as health practitioners, we are concerned about what may be the continued exploitation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for economic gain.

We also note that Skins are available with the Australian flag and are concerned that more broadly, cultural and national pride is being manipulated by these companies. In other words, the sale of products that appropriate cultural content and copyright imagery for the purpose of enhancing the appeal of cigarettes is cause for alarm for us.

As a practice, health promotion endeavours to secure equal opportunity and resources to enable people to achieve their full potential in life. Thus, we raise this issue for your awareness and welcome your analysis, comments and suggestions for action. We are also working on possible responses with advocacy organisations.

Acknowledgement: The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Arika Errington (NACCHO) to this article.

References:

Adams K, Liebzeit A, Jakobi M. (2010). “How’s your sugar?: A deadly website for you, your family and your community.” Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal, Aug;34(5):2.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2010). “The Health and Welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, October 2010.” Journal ABS Cat No 4704.0(Issue) http://abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4704.0/

Basinski D, Parkinson D. (2001). “’We saw we could do it ourselves’: Koorie Cultural Regeneration Project.” Australian Journal of Primary Health;7(1):111-5.

Brady, M. (2002) “Health inequalities: Historical and cultural roots of tobacco use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 26(2): 120-124

[1] We note that both the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags are copyrighted materials and therefore must be reproduced in accordance the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968 or with the permission of the artists, respectively Harold Thomas and the Island Coordinating Council.

[i] School of Social Work and Public Health, Queensland University of Technology; ? k.mcphail-bell@qut.edu.au

[ii] Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit, University of Queensland; c.bond3@uq.edu.au

[iii] School of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University; michelle.maclaren@jcu.edu.au

Aug 16 2012

NACCHO Press Release:The battle to reduce smoking rates and Close the Gap?

Aboriginal health leaders say changes to tobacco packaging are a small step in the battle to reduce smoking rates and Close the Gap?

Mr  Justin Mohamed, Chair of NACCHO representing over 150 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations today welcomed the decision of the High Court of Australia to reject the legal challenge by big tobacco companies, but cautioned that changes in packaging would have only minor impact in reducing the current Aboriginal (15 yrs.+) smoking rate of 47%   (no n Aboriginal rate 15.1%).

“Tobacco smoking is the single greatest preventable cause of premature death amongst Aboriginal people, impacting on the health of individuals and contributing to the devastation of our communities. It accounts for one out of every five (20%) of deaths among Aboriginal Australians and for 17% of the health gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.Tobacco-related diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory disease account for one third of all deaths’’ Mr Mohamed said.

Mr  Mohamed explained it is important to understand that smoking is not a single issue for Aboriginal people but is interwoven with other factors such as poverty, low levels of education, lack of employment opportunities, poor nutrition, disempowerment and stress.

“In many Aboriginal communities where stress is a lived daily reality it is therefore not surprising that smoking rates remain high especially with the unemployed and others on various welfare subsidies and that children are exposed to smoking behavior, “ Mr Mohamed said.

“Our NACCHO Talking about the Smokes (TATS) research partner Menzies School of Health Research recently cautioned that efforts to tackle high smoking rates amongst Aboriginal and Torres people must not add to the stigma often faced by these groups. They stated that Australian’s should blame the industry, not the people who suffer from its products. This High Court decision goes a long way to support this argument.”

“The  efforts of hard-working staff across our member services, to address the depth and  the complexity of health issues facing our communities,  is inspirational but they are battling to Close the Gap within a generation if the governments at all levels do not address the  wide range of social issues faced by many  Aboriginal  Australians.”

In closing Mr Mohamed said NACCHO would especially acknowledge the work of Minister Nicola Roxon who in her former role as Health Minister and her current role as Attorney-General has driven this.

NACCHO Media Contact:

Colin Cowell

National Communications and Media Advisor

(02) 6246 9309 | 0401 331 251| colin@naccho.org.au | www.naccho.org.au/connect