Post by blackcrowheart on Jun 4, 2007 20:38:40 GMT -5
Health group to push for smoking ban on Navajo land By Lindsay
Whitehurst The Daily Times Article
A resolution banning tobacco use in public places on Navajo land could
be in front of the Navajo Nation Council this year if the Black Hills
Center for American Indian Health has its way.
They want "the Navajo Nation to be tobacco free, not only cigarettes but
also chewing tobacco," the non-profit group's vice president, Dr.
Patricia Nez Henderson, said. "(We're looking for) a very comprehensive
tobacco-free policy — powwows, rodeos, government vehicles —
we're going aggressively against community tobacco use."
Last week, the non-profit group got a one-year, $74,965 grant from the
national health philanthropy Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help make
that happen.
The grant will also help the group study public opinion on the subject.
"Within a school setting or tribal office setting, where co-workers
continue to smoke, the co-workers that are not smoking are being
affected," Robert Carr, program specialist for the Black Hills Center in
Winslow, Ariz., said. "They don't realize how dangerous that is for
second-hand smoke."
Tobacco use among Navajos began to climb about 10 to 20 years ago,
Henderson said, and now up to 28 percent of people in some communities
smoke or chew tobacco, Henderson said.
Placing a bill in front of the Navajo Council by end of the year might
be "a little aggressive," she said, but the group wants to at least
start a conversation.
"No one talks about it at all," Henderson said. "This is what
surrounding states are doing, and the Navajo Nation has not done too
much."
A smoking ban resolution was introduced about 15 years ago, she said,
but it didn't pass.
The council meets quarterly and finished its winter session in late
January.
Based in Rapid City, S.D., and incorporated in 1998, the non-profit
Black Hills Center does grant-funded research, education public service
to benefit American Indian health, according to its Web site.
The New Mexico State Legislature is considering a statewide smoking ban
this year. Utah and Arizona, the other two states within the
25,000-square-mile Navajo reservation, have smoking bans.
"We even have young kids age of 10 (smoking)," Carr said. Smoking is "a
common thing on the reservation. They don't really know how dangerous it
is."
Whitehurst The Daily Times Article
A resolution banning tobacco use in public places on Navajo land could
be in front of the Navajo Nation Council this year if the Black Hills
Center for American Indian Health has its way.
They want "the Navajo Nation to be tobacco free, not only cigarettes but
also chewing tobacco," the non-profit group's vice president, Dr.
Patricia Nez Henderson, said. "(We're looking for) a very comprehensive
tobacco-free policy — powwows, rodeos, government vehicles —
we're going aggressively against community tobacco use."
Last week, the non-profit group got a one-year, $74,965 grant from the
national health philanthropy Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help make
that happen.
The grant will also help the group study public opinion on the subject.
"Within a school setting or tribal office setting, where co-workers
continue to smoke, the co-workers that are not smoking are being
affected," Robert Carr, program specialist for the Black Hills Center in
Winslow, Ariz., said. "They don't realize how dangerous that is for
second-hand smoke."
Tobacco use among Navajos began to climb about 10 to 20 years ago,
Henderson said, and now up to 28 percent of people in some communities
smoke or chew tobacco, Henderson said.
Placing a bill in front of the Navajo Council by end of the year might
be "a little aggressive," she said, but the group wants to at least
start a conversation.
"No one talks about it at all," Henderson said. "This is what
surrounding states are doing, and the Navajo Nation has not done too
much."
A smoking ban resolution was introduced about 15 years ago, she said,
but it didn't pass.
The council meets quarterly and finished its winter session in late
January.
Based in Rapid City, S.D., and incorporated in 1998, the non-profit
Black Hills Center does grant-funded research, education public service
to benefit American Indian health, according to its Web site.
The New Mexico State Legislature is considering a statewide smoking ban
this year. Utah and Arizona, the other two states within the
25,000-square-mile Navajo reservation, have smoking bans.
"We even have young kids age of 10 (smoking)," Carr said. Smoking is "a
common thing on the reservation. They don't really know how dangerous it
is."