Going out in a puff of smoke

Tu Tangata, Issue 29, 1 April 1986, Page 24

Going out in a puff of smoke

By Michael Romanos

The fag is the biggest killer of the Maori today. It is estimated smoking! accounts annually for over 25 per cent of all Maori deaths. A lighted i cigarette between the lips is not a breath of fresh air rather it is kiss of death.

Will cigarette smoking provide the Maori wipe-out that other Pakeha introduced diseases, tuberculosis (TB) and diphtheria very nearly succeeded in achieving last century? According to Elizabeth Murchie of the Maori Women’s Welfare League, the infamous and tragic Maori smoking habits come from low income and group pressure. To support Mrs Murchie’s belief of socio-economic influences, the 1981 statistics show of the total occupational group in New Zealand, the greatest number of smokers are from labourers, 54 per cent, cooks, waiter and bartenders, 54 per cent and unemployed, 56 per cent. The percentages of Maori smokers among these groups is greater than that shown. Most smokers believe wrongly that they arc victims of a physical addiction. Smoking can have the effects of relieving boredom and reducing anxiety these aspects are what the antismoking lobby should be concentrating on. Boredom and anxiety are often the product of people in the lower socioeconomic groupings. Mrs Murchie says smoking is especially prevalent among young Maori women because they feel pressured into thinking it is “cool”. Of course, once hooked, it is damm hard to say no. Mrs Murchie said that from a 1984 survey, 61 per cent of Maori women smoked which contrasts dramatically with the overall New Zealand female rate of 30 per cent. Mrs Murchie said another major factor in the high percentage of Maori smokers is the Maori are the only people in New Zealand who live a bi-cultural role. “This is very demanding. Being bicultural is conflicting in the circum-

stances. There are a lot of pressures volved,” she said. “It is extremely difficult to try and get ■ the Maori to stop smoking. It is going to need setting up programmes to show young people alternative life-styles that don’t include smoking. “We need to appeal to the younger people, particularly young women. It is an appeal which is going to involve the whole community but it is difficult when so many parents smoke. “So you Maori people, put down those fags,” implores Mrs Murchie. “Smoking has raged rampant through a generation of Maori people.” Statistical data proves the alarming lung cancer rate amongst Maori women will continue to rise. The blunt truth is that health education messages are falling on closed minds amongst younger women. The health propaganda seems more effective among older men. Women who smoke a pack a day and who are on the contraceptive pill have a 39 per cent greater chance of a heart attack than do their non-smoking sisters who do not take the pill. Therefore we can expect a rise in heart attacks among women.

The effects of smoking by bearing women also means that the ™ birth weight of Maori babies will continue to be lower than for pakeha and Pacific Island babies." Cigarette smoking by pregnant women is associated with a specific chemical fault that may place their children at risk from cancer. Spontaneous abortions and still births are likely to increase if young women continue to increase the proportion of smokers amongst them. Through smoking, up to 50 per cent of Maori men will continue to die before they are eligible to collect superannuation. These horrific facts and many more are presented in this article not for entertainment but to help people decide to kick ° the habit before it is too late.

Cancer and heart disease are not nice ways to die and other effects from smoking are certainly not appealing. Don’t worry so much about marijuana nicotine-filled cigarettes are probably a more lethal drug.

Another major factor for cancer and heart disease is food. Bad food. Too many Maori people especially in the urban areas are hooked onto fast foods, fatty foods and frozen foods. Fresh fruit, vegetables and fibre are what is needed to combat ill-health and disease.

There are 800,000 smokers in New Zealand ulation over 15 years old.

Conservative estimates are that each year 3600 Maori and pakeha New Zealanders die directly from the effects of smoking. This represents 15 per cent of the total number of deaths.

The World Health Organisation want the total removal of tobacco with all countries implementing smoking controls by the year 2000. “The choice is tobacco or health,” they say in a report which adds that tobacco is responsible for at least one million deaths a year world-wide. The report said that passive smoking (non-smokers inhaling other peoples smoke) violates the right to health of non-smokers who must be protected against noxious forms of environmental pollution.

In the United States it is increasingly common for companies to ban smoking, for States to ban smoking in public buildings and for court action against the damage done to the health of people. In Norway, there is a permanent ban on people smoking in private and public cars and other vehicles.

New Zealanders overall are smoking a little less than they were several years ago. But the authorities here are not doing anywhere near as much as they could or should. There are political and financial overtones and social attitudes to contend with. Nevertheless, the various campaigns are having some affect. In most quarters, smoking is no longer the “in thing” for New Zealanders. Smoking restrictions which once were confined to movie theatres have sprung up in other public facilities.

Stop-smoking programmes, products and organisations are with us, such as hypnotism, acupuncture, plastic substitutes, group therapy, gum etc, but it is the will and determination of the smoker to stop that counts and the most effective way seems to be the “cold turkey” method supplemented by support from family and friends. If a puffer does not really want to give it up, nothing much will help. My wife, Leigh, a smoker since aged 13 and on 140 cigarettes a week (one 20-pack a day) for the past eight years, did the cold turkey thing about six months ago. No doubt my encouragement was important. Leigh said it wasn’t as traumatic as she thought it would be and fear had

been a major factor in her not making the move sooner. Nowadays, Leigh jogs regularly, something she had not been able to do previously. Her sense of smell has become more acute and her lungs don’t burn anymore when she is physically exerting herself. Her sense of wellbeing has imrpoved enormously and of course she is better off financially about sls a week. Leigh had a typical smoke-influenced background. All her family smokes like a house on fire and among her college schoolmates smoking was the thing to do.

But the cold blooded facts must surely hit home to some people. The cancer capitals of the world are Glasgow, New Orleans and Aotearoa. Maori men are identified as the third worse at risk lung cancer catchers in the world. The 1976 and 1981 census show that Maori men are heavy smokers. The male Maori has a lung cancer level of 106 cases per 100,000 of the population. But our Maori women need not take this as an inference that they are getting off lightly with lung cancer. Far from it.

Traditionally, the breast has been the leading site for cancer in women. However, by 1982 the female death rate from lung cancer in New Zealand has reached epidemic proportions.

Each year about 20 per cent of female cancer deaths in New Zealand are attributed to breast cancer, while the mortality rate from lung cancer ranks among the highest in the world.

Non-Maori women are at greater risk to breast cancer. Lung cancer is the greater risk among Maori women. The Maori mortality rate from lung cancer has increased by about 3 per cent per year and nearly 2 per cent from breast cancer.

(Definition of Maori is those of Maori descent)

Cigarette smoking is the single major factor in lung cancer which is a very nasty cancer to have.

The cure rate of lung cancer within a five year period from contracting the disease is a miserable 8 per cent. Lung cancer spreads rapidly and is unpleasant, causing severe pain, confusion and

loss of apetite. It can spread to the bone, liver and brain. There is also the grave risk of cancers developing in other parts of the body that inhaled smoke has penetrated. The tragedy is that lung cancer is usually detected in its advanced stages.

Infant deaths are linked to smoking and a recent survey with supplied New Zealand figures shows that infant mortality among the Maori is abysmal probably the highest in the westernised world. In 1982 12 Maori babies died out of every 1000 born compared with 6 non-Maori babies. Overall, New Zealand at 7 deaths of every 1000 is more than double the rate of European countries.

While Maori baby death rates dropped significantly during the 1950’5, they are now on the rise again. A baby whose mother smoked during pregnancy is more likely to die in its first year than one who did not. Statistics show maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with increases in both post-neo-natal death and cot death. Findings show most at risk children are those of Maori smokers.

The risk of dying for these children, when their mothers are between aged 20 and 24, is nearly seven times higher than for the corresponding infants of Maori non-smokers. The survey notes that the association between the deaths and smoking occurred only when the mothers are under 25 and that a fifth of all cot deaths might be avoided if

mothers refrain from smoking during pregnancy. One can pick smokers by their facial wrinkles. Smoking produces gauntness, wrinkles and a grey tinge of the skin. But a “smokers face” may disappear after the habit has been abandoned. Smoking aggravates asthma. One in six New Zealanders will suffer from asthma in their lives and over 200 died from asthma in 1984. Asthma deaths are greater among Maori people than pakeha. Smoking can prevent the usual things that bring relief to asthmatics from being effective. But still, over a third of New Zealanders who die from asthma, remain smokers.

New Zealand’s main anti-smoking independent organisation, ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) was established in 1982 and their address is PO Box 8667, Symonds Street, Auckland. (They have a sister organisation MASH Maoris against smoking). ASH say that: Smoking is a major cause of lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, emphysema and coronary heart disease. It is also a factor in cancer of the mouth, throat, bladder and gullet and in arterial disease.

Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide which reduces the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood, nicotine which raises the pulse and blood pressure, and tar which contains chemical compounds which produces cancer or acts with other chemicals to stimulate the growth of certain cancers.

Passive smoking (breathing other people’s smoke) is an intake of sidestream smoke which contains higher concentration of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide than mainstream smoke.

Children with smoking parents get more coughs and colds and are more likely to get bronchitis and pneumonia.

About 123,000 children under 18 smoke in New Zealand.

Over two million dollars is spent annually in New Zealand on cigarette advertising in the print media. A further three million dollars is spent on tobacco companies advertising their sponsorship of sport. Probably one million dollars is spent each year on direct sponsorship by tobacco company’s of sport and art. Tobacco companies encourage the social acceptability of smoking and influence children to start.

There are 2000 potentially toxic compounds in cigarette smoke which is an alarming variety of noxious chemical and biological materials. Apart from carbon monoxide, tar and nicotine, other health hazards are acrolein, cresol, hydrogen cyanide, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, phenol, DDT, formaldehyde, ammonia, acetaldehyde, acetone etc. Traces of other toxic material include heavy metals, insecticides, fungicides, fungal products and viruses. Who smoke in New Zealand from the 1981 census.

If you won’t accept my advice take the word of world famous American en-tertainer-actor-singer, Frank Sinatra.

Frankie’s famous trademarks were a cigarette slouched in the corner of his mouth in a rakish fashion and an angled hat. Said Sinatra, a veteran of 40 years of smoking, “Smoking is stupid. I gave it away one day just stopped cold when I realised what I was doing to myself.”

Sinatra, now 70, still wears his hat but he is lucky he has a head left to prop it up.

Give smoking up in the nick-of-time. Don’t let nicotine extinguish your life or those around you.

Quick reference from ASH

Did you know that: Over 3600 Kiwis die every year as result of their smoking equivalent to one MT Erebus crash every month. Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, bronchitis and emphysema. Cigarettes are the most addictive product on the market.

Two out of three New Zealand smokers want to give it up.

Although adults are giving up smoking, more than 40 teenagers every day are taking up the habit.

There have been more than 20 major official reports and over 30,000 articles published proving the health hazards of smoking.

Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in New Zealand.

Lung cancer rate has tripled in the last 30 years.

A one cent rise in tobacco tax yields three million dollars which is more than enough to replace all cigarette money given to sport, arts and community services.

One quarter of 15 year olds smoke regularly.

According to an NRB poll in 1984, 75 per cent of the public want a ban on smoking in enclosed public places.

0.1 per cent of cigarette taxes for education on smoking and health.

Maori non-Maori period lung breast lung breast 1964-68 86.74 57.79 12.62 61.01 1969-73 132.87 79.15 21.58 61.95 1974-78 135.56 61.27 27.62 63.23 1979-81 165.62 88.47 31.87 65.40

Table 1 - Mortality rate per 100,000 from lung and breast cancer for NZ women, 35 years and older.

Table 2 Percentages Group 1976 1981 total 35 32 male 39 35 female 32 29 males 15-19 28 27 females 15-19 29 30 males 20-39 43 38 females 20-39 34 30 males 40-59 43 37 females 40-59 34 30 Maori males 15-19 50 49 Maori females 15-19 55 57 Maori males 20-24 64 63 Maori females 20-24 69 70 Pacific Island males 45 42 Pacific Island females 24 24 Maori males 55 54 Maori females 59 58

Percentage Age group Percentage Men Women Women 20-24 63 70 25-29 60 66 30-34 57 63 35-39 56 61 40-44 53 56 45-49 49 52 50-54 47 49 55-59 46 42 60-64 41 37 65-69 36 30 70-74 34 25 7530 19

Table 3. Maori men and women smoking census data 1981