Bosnian smokers concern county
Standing by the bar, Anto Peric is one of the few without a smoke, but that doesn't stop him from blending in. He shakes hands with acquaintances and slaps them on the back. Over the next two years, his job with the St. Louis County Health Department will be to help convince fellow Bosnians why it's smart to quit smoking.
He wasn't officially on the job this Saturday night, but it showed what he's up against: a culture that has long embraced smoking -- even as many Bosnians know the health dangers.
In a sobering moment, Peric concedes, "This is really a bad place to find a nonsmoker."
About 50,000 Bosnians now live in the St. Louis area, and half of the adults are believed to be smokers. That's double the percentage of adult Missouri smokers.
The Health Department, worried about the long-term health costs for Bosnians, has launched a program to try to slice the high smoking rate. And it has hired Peric, an area Bosnian, to help spread the message. Peric moved to St. Louis 11 years ago and now lives in Richmond Heights.
He plans to start by targeting Bosnian media outlets. Last week, he promoted the anti-smoking campaign for an upcoming episode of "Ovdje i Sada" (Here and Now), a program on a local access cable channel.
