Second Hand Smoke

With sponsorship of ClearWay Minnesota and collaborative efforts of Minnesota African Women Association and Wilder Research, the First Annual Second Hand Smoke Summit was a huge success. Over 80 African women and girls from St. Paul, Brooklyn Park and Minneapolis attended the summit which convened on November 15, 2008 at Augsburg College.

The attendees were educated on the numerous health effects of smoking and second hand smoke. They were equally impressed to learn of third hand smoke effects from a brilliant presentation done by Kristin Dillon, a research analyst with Wilder Research. She also gave a summary of the general findings from our research. Some of the women expressed their frustration with getting their apartment building management to take steps to curb the smoking that goes on in the community rooms, laundry room, etc., in their apartment buildings where some members smoke in spite of the “No Smoking” rule. They asked for MAWA staff help in making their apartment management take action against those tenants who continue to smoke in these common “no smoking” areas. MAWA assigned someone to follow up on the matter.

In preparation for the event, MAWA partnered with Wilder research to study secondhand smoke exposure among African women, girls and children living in the Twin Cities metro area. MAWA successfully completed informational interviews with 10 women from different African communities. In addition, MAWA and Wilder completed four focus group discussions with teenage African girls from prominent African communities in the Twin Cities. The discussions aimed to collect information about secondhand smoke in their individual communities.

With the information gathered from the interviews and focus groups, MAWA and Wilder Research learned the extent to which different African communities are exposed to secondhand smoke and consequently organized this summit specifically to inform participants of our findings.

Thus, the main purpose of the summit was to summarize findings from our research and help raise awareness of the devastating effects of second hand smoke. Out of many significant findings, we particularly found that Shisha (fruit-flavored tobacco smoked using a water pipe) is an increasing form of smoking in some of the African Communities. Also noteworthy was the fact that the majority of young African teenage girls are well informed on the harms of second-hand smoke and stand up to people who smoke, asking them to not smoke around them or simply moving away from people who are smoking. Many mentioned breaking off friendships with their peers who began smoking.

To help in the effort to raise awareness and shed more light on our findings, a prominent and well-versed leader from the Somali Community, Binti Abuker, gave a presentation on the subject of Shisha. She particularly advised that the smoke from Shisha is equally as dangerous as smoking cigarette, in spite of its deceitful fruit and other flavors that makes it appeal to women as well.

Also, a short documentary was shown on the harmful effects of secondhand smoke especially when children are exposed to it. To further drive the point home on the harms of smoking shisha, 12 young members of our African Girls Initiative for Leadership & Empowerment, AGILE, program, acted a short play written by MAWA’s Health Coordinator, Bola Adediran.

Other activities at this summit included a panel of African women talking on how secondhand smoke is affecting their communities and offering their opinions on how to create greater awareness in various African communities on the harms of second-hand smoke.

Besides the educational skit, the AGILE girls, led by their coordinator and facilitators, LaBelle Nambangi, Hani Hussein and Margretta Getaweh, brought in other forms of entertainment, giving the event a real African flavor: they performed two African dances and put on an African fashion show.