Advertisements Tempts Local Smokers

As the young boy ran from the translucent cloud of toxic cigarette smoke, he sent a powerful message about harm reduction.The No Durri for this Murri campaign aims to reduce indigenous smoking rates by getting the community thinking about harm reduction. North Coast Aboriginal Corporation for Community Health yesterday launched its second advertising strategy aimed the local Indigenous community. The strategy has non-smoking ads on buses in the Sunshine Coast and Gympie regions. Corporation operations manager Kim Helmore said she hoped the bus campaign would get Coast-wide recognition. "The bus has Aboriginal paintings and there's a young boy running about from the smoke," Ms Helmore said. "It's supposed to help stop second-hand smoke and help us continue our culture." Ms Helmore said the national indigenous smoking rate was 50%, with the Sunshine Coast rate significantly lower at 30%. However, this was still well above the national non-indigenous average of 17%. The corporation hopes to improve the life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous people through the campaign. "It's an 11-year gap," Ms Helmore said. "The statistics show if we can stop people smoking, we would be able to help close the gap. "Overall, we hope to reduce the harm second-hand smoke is doing to friends and family."