The Wire

Although the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who smoke is slowly reducing, the rate of smokers is still 2.6 times higher than that of other Australians. 1 in 5 Indigenous deaths is a result of smoking, and budget cuts to Indigenous smoking programs could restrict services to those who are looking to quit. A new series of papers called ‘Talking about the Smokes’ released yesterday aims to tackle and highlight the issues of smoking within Indigenous communities around Australia and reduce the number of smokers.