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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Immigrant teens take up smoking

Quebec study shows they pick up unhealthy habits soon after arriving in Canada

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 02/23/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

MONTREAL -- Canada is turning immigrant children and teens into smokers, especially those who settle in disadvantaged inner-city neighbourhoods, suggests a new study.

Most children who arrive in Canada from other countries do not smoke -- what is known as the "healthy immigrant effect." However, almost one in three immigrant children end up smoking once they've lived in Quebec for 11 to 12 years, according to the study by researchers at the Universite de Montreal and McGill University.

"Quite clearly, the longer immigrant kids stay in Canada, the more likely they are to smoke," said Jennifer O'Loughlin, lead author of the study. "In order to make friends, the kids felt they had to start smoking.

"Or maybe it's just opportunity: the kids are hanging around the corners after school and their friends are lighting up, whereas in their home countries, that wasn't the case," O'Loughlin added.

Contrary to popular perception, immigrant families who arrive here tend to be educated and healthy. They must pass a physical exam to be accepted into Canada, and as a general rule, most do not smoke.

But soon after arriving in Canada, many immigrants move into poor neighbourhoods where smoking is more prevalent, O'Loughlin noted.

"What tends to happen is that over time, immigrants adopt our unhealthy habits -- whether they are dietary or sedentary behaviour or smoking. Within 10 years, this so-called healthy immigrant effect disappears."

Although this phenomenon has been well understood in adults, the researchers wanted to test it out on immigrant children. They studied school surveys from nearly 2,000 Montreal children, age nine to 12, who either were immigrants or who had one parent born outside Canada. The researchers discovered that 21 per cent of immigrant children became smokers after living in Canada for six to 10 years. This rose to 28 per cent after living here for 11 to 12 years.

Over time, the prevalence of smoking among immigrant children is equal to that of Quebec-born youth, O'Loughlin said. The results were published last Friday in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The study follows a Statistics Canada survey two weeks ago which reported that more teenagers in Quebec are turning to smoking. That survey found that one in five teens aged 15 to 19 lit up last year -- an increase of three per cent from 2008.

By comparison, the national smoking rate for that age group declined to 14 per cent from 15 per cent.

Flory Ducas, co-director of the Coalition quebecoise pour le controle du tabac (coalition for the control of tobacco), expressed concern about the latest trend in the industry: packaging cigarettes to look like iPods or cellphones -- clearly aimed at teenagers.

-- Canwest News Service

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 23, 2010 B15

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