[Intl-tobacco] NZ: Maori smokers target for ads (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Maori smokers target for ads
by ANGELA GREGORY
Source: New Zealand Herald, Monday, 8/6/01

The problem of high smoking rates among Maori stretches back to the
colonisation of New Zealand, says Prime Minister Helen Clark.

At the launch of a television campaign in Auckland yesterday aimed at
persuading Maori to quit, Helen Clark said colonisation had introduced
something deadly to Maoridom.

 There was no evidence that Maori used any substances such as tobacco
before the arrival of Pakeha.

But Helen Clark said it was never too late to stop smoking and endorsed
the campaign's use of the importance of family to Maori to get that
message across.

"We know whanau is everything to Maoridom ... I wish I could say the same
for my own community."

Helen Clark said the advertisements, showing Maori who gave up smoking for
the sake of their families, had moved her.

"I'm not Maori and they had me almost in tears," she said.

The campaign, called "It's About Whanau", features 12 Maori ex-smokers who
share their stories about quitting.

Anaru Waa, spokesman for Quit Group, a smoking cessation partnership, said
the advertisements showed that the benefits of giving up were dramatic for
the smoker and his or her whanau.

Research by the Quit Group had shown that focusing on the consequences of
ill-health and premature death on the smoker's whanau, hapu, and iwi was
effective.

Maori were a priority group because of their disproportionately high rate
of smoking and smoking-related disease.

"About 40 Maori die of smoking-related illnesses every month. That's the
equivalent of a busload of people every month."

The latest research indicated one in two Maori were smokers compared to
one in five Pakeha, and one in three Pacific peoples.

One in three Maori deaths was caused by smoking and lung-cancer rates
among Maori were twice as high as for non-Maori.

"For Maori women they are the highest in the world."

Mr Waa said the social costs were high, because fewer kaumatua and kuia
(elders) were left to safeguard Maori culture.

The advertisements encouraged people to call Quitline.

One of the Maori featured, Melanie Pipi (Ngati Porou), said she stopped
smoking last year on discovering she was three months pregnant.

"I gave it up because I knew it would be no good for baby ... it's just a
pity I had to be pregnant to make that decision."