Table 1.

Key statements on smoking in two focus groups representative of Slovenian Roma community

Smoking	Comments (transcripts)
Part of ethnic identity and family life	All Gypsies smoke, everywhere, in Germany, France, the Netherlands. Until they die I’ll tell this literally, Gypsies won’t be forbidden to smoke, I’m positive about that, it's inside me...
Smoking among children	Roma children start smoking at five, or seven, put simply, when they come out of diapers, they already smoke. …My cigarettes were missing… She would go out, daddy isn’t watching, she would smoke 5,6 in a row… Then I said something like this: “You can smoke I allow you, but you will smoke according to the rules. When mama lights up, mama gives you two smokes.”
Source of pleasure	I smoke cigarettes as a hobby, when others smoke.
Awareness of health risks associated with smoking	The cigarette isn’t harmful to me, it’s my pleasure and I light it up when I feel like it… As I said it’s not harmful to me, only now have I started to feel pressure in my chest. When I inhale that smoke … I sometimes suffocate, sometimes I use an inhaler… I was told I have chronic bronchitis. I have breathing difficulties, I don’t know whether it comes from cigarettes or not. I think they (cigarettes) harm my health… I have a short breath… then I light a cigarette and breathe even more difficult… then I smoke two, three packages… I hope I will never quit. You die anyhow. When the destiny comes, you die. I don’t feel any harmful effects. Maybe, if I were older, like my father.
Passive smoking within the family	Cigarettes are very harmful to my little one, when I smoke beside her. She is screaming at me to put the cigarettes away, she has bronchitis…
Attempts to quit	When I open my eyes, a cigarette is first. If I don’t have it, my nerves break down. My body needs nicotine. I abstained from (smoking) only one day. I would like to give up (smoking)… no way… cigarettes will go to the grave with me. My doctor suggested I stop smoking, but I said I can’t, it’s not possible. I think, I’m still young, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll quit one time, maybe not.