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• HEALTH GOES UP IN SMOKE WHEN TEMPTATION IS CHEAP 

East and Central Harlem, predominantly minority, low-income communities, are numbers three and four on the list of New York City neighborhoods with the most adult smokers – 27 and 26 percent, respectively. While there are many reasons for upper Manhattan’s high rate, including stress, a phenomenon known as the “Five Dollar Man” – an illegal street vendor of untaxed packs or single cigarettes – has undercut the city’s otherwise largely successful efforts to lower smoking rates throughout the city.

Two communities on Staten Island, the South Shore and Mid Island, share the highest smoking rate in the city: 33 percent. However, the largely residential borough appears not to have Five Dollar Men, and smoking habits there puzzle public health officials. In 2006, 27 percent of Staten Island residents smoked – unchanged from the 2004 rate – bucking citywide trends in smoking reduction.

At 25 percent, the southeast Bronx rounds out the top five for highest smoking rates. Meanwhile rates are lowest in southwest Queens, northeast Bronx and Chelsea, at 11 percent. (See Department of Health statistics here.)

The Five Dollar Man usually sells packs for $4 to $5 or “loosies” at 16 to 50 cents apiece, prices significantly lower than taxed packs, which average $7 in New York City. . . .

Bootleggers operate in many of the city's poorer neighborhoods, including the south Bronx, Washington Heights, East New York, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick. It was Harlem, however, that formed the case study for a report published in August in the American Journal of Public Health. . . .

Police are trying to respond. One officer in Harlem, who asked not to be identified, estimated that the 28th Precinct conducts 80 to 100 illegal cigarette-targeted operations per year, resulting in 350 to 400 arrests, which he said is typical of other precincts in the area. . . .

Smoking rates in Harlem are around 50 percent higher than the New York City average of 17.5 percent . . .

The Department of Health’s vigorous citywide effort to reduce smoking – which includes a $3.00 per pack cigarette tax, indoor smoking bans, free cessation services, a telephone “Quitline” and an advertising campaign – has shown strong results, decreasing tobacco use from 21.5 to 17.5 percent between 2002 and 2006. Results in Harlem, however, have been less impressive, with East Harlem’s rate actually rising from 22 to 27 percent between 2002 and 2004.

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