Smoking in Bosnian community

The World
The World
This man is a regular at a popular Bosnian club in St. Louis, and his attitude is fairly regular when it comes towards smoking for Bosnians: he says I smoke a lot but I don't feel any consequences. He knows smoking is bad for you, but he's just not worried about it. He cites his grandparents lived very long lives and smoked a lot. This woman and health official is concerned about exactly that type of attitude. She says at first her ideas were laughed at. She says one reason convincing Bosnians to quit smoking is because of the central role smoking plays in Bosnian culture. This county worker who is Bosnian and doesn't smoke says the first reason he hears against quitting is stress: many of these people suffer from PTSD and they don't know how to deal with stress. This Bosnian refugee says his countrymen have a kind of fatalistic attitude towards smoking: if we've survived so much already, we can survive smoking. Chipping away at that attitude is difficult but not possible. This Bosnian man and his wife have tried smoking multiple times but haven't been able to do. For the health worker, the woman says just having a discussion about smoking will do more than any billboard. Eventually, the quit-smoking program will include nicotine therapy and job training. A smoking ban is a possibility in Missouri too.
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