Health

• Tobacco smoking increases the risk of a number of conditions including coronary heart, cerebro-vascular and respiratory disease, as well as a range of cancers.
• An estimated one in four Aboriginal people aged over 18 years who suffer cardiovascular disease also indicate ex smoker status¹.
• This disease burden in Aboriginal communities is obvious in hospital separation data which estimates that tobacco smoking contributes to more drug related hospitalisations and deaths than alcohol and illicit drug use combined ², although this may be an underestimate, with only 56 per cent of Aboriginal deaths registered accurately³.
• The health effects of tobacco on infants also contributes to higher rates of Aboriginal morbidity and mortality, with increased risks of low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome and respiratory illness recorded for Aboriginal babies born to mothers who smoke⁴.
• Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) impacts on the health of non smokers as well as that of infants and children.

<sup>1- Penm, E 2008, Cardiovascular disease and its associated risk factors in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Australian Institute for Health and Welfare, Cardiovascular disease series no. 29, Category no. CVD 41, Canberra., p.39.

2- Australian Bureau of Statistics & Australian Institute for Health and Welfare (ABS & AIHW) 2008, The Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People 2008, Commonwealth Government, Canberra, p.138

3- SCRGSP (Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision) 2007, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2007, Productivity Commission, Canberra, p.3.2

4- Graham S, Jackson Pulver, LR, Wang, YA, Kelly, PM, Laws, PJ, Grayson, N & Sullivan, EA 2007, ‘The urban remote divide for Indigenous perinatal outcomes’, Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 186, issue 10, May, pp. 509-512. p.511</sup>