Chewing Tobacco An Alternative?

MEDIA RELEASE

5 September 2007

For Immediate Release

Chewing Tobacco An Alternative For ‘Hard-Core’ Maori Smokers?

Maori have the dubious distinction of being amongst the highest smoking populations in the world today, Massey University’s Professor Chris Cunningham, told the Oceania Tobacco Control conference in Auckland today.

Speaking on workable strategies to reduce smoking rates among Maori, Professor Cunningham said smoking had major health effects upon Maori individuals, their whanau, hapu and iwi, and that it contributed significantly to inequalities in health.

He said that while prevention of uptake programmes, and cessation services such as those provided by the Quit Group were key strategies, achieving Hone Harawira’s utopia of a smokefree Aotearoa as a ‘by Maori for Maori’ initiative may require including other alternatives.

One such alternative tobacco control authorities should consider researching further is the effectiveness of chewing tobacco, or Snus. Professor Cunningham says while the idea of introducing Snus is controversial, it does merit attention for the hard core smokers who cannot give up.

“My work with The Quit Group has led me to realise that while we have many successes in helping people to quit smoking, there is a group of hard core, long term smokers who go round and round in circles trying to give up. Snus might be the answer for them,” Professor Cunningham told the conference.

“There are many in the cessation field who would tell me that if I stopped just one smoker from quitting altogether by introducing them to Snus, then I would be doing harm. But I believe that for a small number of smokers, it’s hopeless to talk about quitting and harm reduction is what we should be looking at.”

Professor Cunningham said Snus was smokefree and without carcinogens. He said its use had been shown to substantially reduce the incidence of lung cancer. “It also means smokefree environments for whanau,” he said.

Chris Cunningham also told the 370 international delegates that what he called “structural levers” such as continually reducing the tobacco supply by placing decreasing quotas on production, would help New Zealand towards a 2020 smokefree goal. He said that if only current strategies were maintained that goal would not be achieved.

Professor Cunningham also said that current cessation resources must be increased. “We have 750,000 smokers in New Zealand and every year, we help maybe 10,000 give up. To make a real difference we need to commit more funding to get blanket coverage of all areas, with all smokers having access to the cessation programme of their choice.”

--

ends

© Scoop Media