Feds fund 'quit smoking' programs for Inuit

OTTAWA - On a day when the nation's capital was veiled in hazy smoke from forest fires in Quebec, the federal government announced new money for smoking cessation programs.

Marking "World No Tobacco Day," Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced $350,000 to help expectant mothers in four Inuit regions quit smoking. The program is meant to support elders guiding expectant and new mothers toward information on smoking cessation, so they're less likely to light up either during pregnancy or after.

More than 37,000 Canadians die each year from illnesses related to smoking, Aglukkaq said, and lung cancer is now the leading cause of cancer deaths among women. Small children are especially vulnerable to second-hand smoke, she said.

In Nunavut, Aglukkaq's home territory, women and girls smoke at nearly three times the rate of women in the rest of Canada, she said.

"We have to cut off the stream of new smokers and help people who are already smoking in their efforts to quit." In Inuit communities, the perils of smoking are worsened by social isolation, overcrowded housing conditions, and the long Arctic winters that keep people indoors and more exposed than other Canadians to second-hand smoke.

"I think when you're in a small community, it sort of catches on," said Mary Simon, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada's national Inuit organization. "I remember as a child, friends were smoking, you felt like you had to smoke.

"We know that a lot of children have respiratory problems due to bad, poor air quality which could be related to smoking." Simon said in one study, more than 80% of Inuit women were shown to smoke during pregnancy. Another concluded that 85% of infants in Nunavut's capital, Iqaluit, were exposed to second-hand smoke in the womb.

According to Statistics Canada figures, Nunavut has the highest smoking rate in Canada, with 54.2% of those over the age of 12 smoking daily or occasionally. The Canadian average as of 2008 was 21.4%.