Community
13 April, 2024
Stamping out ‘gaspers’
HEALTH authorities are desperate to curb the extremely high rates of smoking in Australia’s largest Indigenous community of Yarrabah, west of Cairns.
It is estimated 1500 adults smoke in the community – a vast majority of residents aged 18 or over in a community of 2505 people, according to the 2021 census.
Deadly Choices – Australia’s foremost preventative health and education program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities – is conducting an all-out assault against tobacco consumption at Yarrabah with the Gurriny Yealamucka Health Services Aboriginal Corporation (Gurriny Yealamucka) using funding from the federal government’s Tackling Indigenous Smoking (TIS) Program.
This week they enlisted the help of Deadly Choices ambassadors and rugby league greats legends Petro Civoniceva and Will Tonga to highlight the dangers of smoking.
Gurriny Yealamucka Health Services chief executive officer Suzanne Andrews said adult smoking rates at Yarrabah were “extraordinarily high”.
“We take a holistic approach to Indigenous health. Smoking cannot be viewed in isolation and treated separate to the other health and social stresses, but this program can, and will, deliver lasting health benefits for more than 1500 adult smokers here in Yarrabah,” she said.
“Quitting smoking is harder in Yarrabah due to the incredible pressures of overcrowding and social disadvantage.
“This partnership with Deadly Choices highlights our ongoing commitment to closing the gap when it comes to health inequality. Lives will be changed as a result of this joint initiative. The end result will be a considerable saving on whole of life health costs as well as improved quality of living for our community members.”
Institute for Urban Indigenous Health commercial operations director Dallas Leon said the campaign would “ensure we provide appropriate education and assistance to existing clients of Gurriny Yealamucka throughout Yarrabah, while also envisaging substantial growth as we instigate health messaging throughout the wider community”.
“The reality is that preventative measures for our people requires a directive towards optimising overall health outcomes, so it’s always about making those deadly, healthy choices by staying away from tobacco products, eating good food, exercising regularly and instigating regular health checks at community-controlled health services,” he said.
TIS national coordinator Professor Tom Calma said “we’ve really got to ensure our mob are aware that with vaping, there are the underlying health issues, economic issues due to the costs of devices and, as importantly, are the environmental impacts, stemming from the disposal of devices that are plastic, plus they contain button batteries that we know infants and young kids have swallowed in the past and have died from”.
