On Sunday, August 1, 2010, the volunteers for Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE)âÂÂs Annual Summer Street Festival were assigned to clean up Columbus Park. What they realized was that cigarette butts dominated the âÂÂtrashâ in this park.
As the state recently raised the tax for cigarettes this summer in an attempt to decrease the overall consumption of cigarette, it seems that the Asian community needs more than a raise of cigarette tax and price.
âÂÂNot much research has been done regarding the Asian smoking community,â said Peter Gee, the Associate Director of Resource Development and Programs of AAFE.
The people who use the stone part [Columbus Park consists of a playground, a basketball/volleyball court, a soccer field, and a stone part filled with picnic and chess tables] of Columbus Park are continuants and street dwellers of the Chinatown community. They are seniors who smoke there while playing Chinese chess and paper mahjong; it is their place to socialize.
Even with the increase of cigarette prices, the Asian community still smokes a lot.
Though the American cigarettes that are taxed are expensive, the Chinese community could still seek smuggled cigarettes that are not taxed, thus much cheaper.
Before the festival I only know that Asians- especially Chinese people- smoke a lot (especially back in China where it seems to be a cultural thing). With cigarette butts everywhere, I questioned myself, âÂÂWhy are the seniors smoking this much? Why isn’t anyone reaching out to my community [Chinese/Asian] about the impacts of smoking? What government resources are offered to my community?âÂÂ
I finally released that my community smokes a lot and it is a problem when seniors are the main contributors to the cigarette trash in the park.
The city has a lot to offer to communities that wants to push for a Smoke-Free initiative. The problem is itâÂÂs not being outreached to the Asian communities.
With their own booth and a designated workshop in the festival to educate and encourage the Asian community to quit smoking, the city finally approached the Asian community in AAFEâÂÂs summer street festival.
In partnership with AAFEâÂÂs bilingual translators, the Manhattan smoke-free partnership educated the Asian community (especially senior smokers) about the cityâÂÂs free nicotine patches.
Hopefully when the volunteers are sweeping Columbus Park on AAFE summer street festival in 2011, cigarette butts will not dominate the trash in the park.