High Rates of Passive Smoking

Smoking rates as high as almost 50 per cent among men in migrant communities are being targeted by NSW health authorities to help cut tobacco use. Men from Middle Eastern and Asian backgrounds are ignoring government-funded anti-smoking campaigns and warnings about the health dangers related to tobacco, and are far more likely to smoke than Australian-born residents. The smoking rate for the general NSW population is 14.7 per cent. However, figures show that in the Fairfield City area almost half (47.7 per cent) of Vietnamese-speaking men are smokers. More than a third (36.5 per cent) of Arabic-speaking men in that part of Sydney's south-west smoke. About 40 per cent of Lebanese men and a third of Vietnamese men use tobacco in NSW. The high rates mirror the rates in countries where the tobacco industry is stepping up its marketing to attract new smokers. Figures from the international Tobacco Atlas show smoking rates among men in China are at 50.4 per cent. More than 45 per cent of men in Lebanon use tobacco, and in Vietnam 40 per cent of men smoke. The chief executive of the Cancer Institute NSW, David Currow, said any moves by big tobacco to push cigarettes in resource-poor countries have an effect on Australia. ''We are talking about the cultural norms of a country and, if people then make Australia home, then they will bring with them the culture of tobacco use,'' he said.