TURANGANUI PHO, Tairawhiti District Health and Te Runanga O Ngati Porou are calling for a prohibition of tobacco to combat the high number of smoking-related deaths among Tairawhiti Maori.

Mirroring Sir Apirana Ngata’s move to prohibit alcohol on the East Coast in 1911, the organisations have appealed to the Maori Affairs Select Committee with submissions pushing for a prohibited supply and display of tobacco.

To ask for anything less was “a continued death sentence for the region’s Maori”, they said.

Shocking Maori health statistics highlighted the need to give serious consideration to prohibition, said Turanganui PHO chief executive Keriana Brooking.

Tairawhiti has New Zealand’s highest rate of tobacco consumption and the region’s Maori have the highest mortality rate for cancer, heart disease, strokes and diabetes.

“Maori are three times more likely to die in this community from tobacco related illnesses. These illnesses cause our whanau a lot of distress and would be avoidable if people did not smoke,” said Mrs Brooking.

“Prohibition was introduced in the early part of last century because of the recognised link between alcohol and the negative impact it was having on the Maori community . . . and now we are facing a similar problem.

“There is a definite link between tobacco use and poor health status of Maori, so prohibition should be a serious option.

“We accept that when prohibition is suggested, pragmatists say it is extremely difficult to enforce because once you introduce something it is hard to eradicate it, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t explore the option.

“Our district health board is committed to being smokefree by 2020 and you can’t stay on track for that goal without prohibition.”

The Turanganui PHO submission suggested eliminating the supply of tobacco in the region by 2020, banning tobacco displays and setting up a taskforce to implement recommendations from the select committee inquiry.

Tairawhiti District Health has put forward three submissions to the committee, which is headed by Hone Harawira. Two push for prohibition of tobacco.

The submissions suggest a range of moves from making tobacco a classified substance and restricting its use, as suggested by health board member Brian Wilson last year, to the removal of advertising and putting higher taxes on cigarettes, said population health portfolio manager Naomi Whitewood.

The submission process was important “because it gave the district the opportunity to have a say on the effect tobacco had on its large Maori population”, said Mrs Whitewood.

The number of strong submissions to the committee was reflective of how society now viewed tobacco, she said.

The select committee has been invited to the district to hear the region’s submissions in person.