Polish Smoke More In Ireland

Polish living in Ireland are smoking heavily due to cheap cigarettes brought in from Eastern Europe. They are smoking more than the Irish as well as their countrymen in Poland.

A study conducted showed that the Polish in Ireland were stocking up cigarettes. Irish wages and prices are encouraging them to smoke more. There are about 63,000 Polish immigrants living in Ireland who belong to the age group of 20 and 40 years, who smoke the maximum. The highest number of smokers belong to the age group of 20-25 years. About 10 percent of men and 5 percent of women smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day.

The young women who come to Ireland tend to give up smoking. It was also observed that people who came in 2004 smoked heavily as compared to those who came in 2007. This indicates that anti-smoking campaigns in Poland were having an impact on the smokers.

Prof Clancy, director of the Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society is of the view that restrictions should be placed on the number of cigarettes Polish can bring from Poland. He felt that there were not sufficient cessation and prevention services

The study involved 1,545 Polish immigrants who were smokers at the time of entering Ireland.

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