Tobacco.org

• Hundreds fined for smoking in cars since new laws 

MORE than 400 people have been cautioned or fined for smoking in cars with children in South Australia since the controversial law was introduced.

The state led the nation by introducing a law prohibiting smoking in vehicles in the presence of people under 16 in May 2007, in a bid to protect children from passive smoking.

Since then, police have fined 317 people and cautioned 85.

Offenders can be issued with an on-the-spot fine of $75 and if it proceeds to court, the maximum penalty is $200.

A woman was recently convicted for the offence in NSW just three months after that state brought in the new laws.

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Govt quits anti-smoking campaign 

A novel anti-smoking program aimed at primary school students has lost Tasmanian Government funding under the QUIT program.

Surgeon Stephen Wilkinson has been running the 'Docs for a Day' program for 15 years, giving thousands of students a dose of reality about the effects of smoking.

"We've had very clear evidence that people have changed their behaviour as a result," he said.

But the Government is not convinced and has withdrawn support.

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• Austria tops teen smokers ranking  

Austria has the highest percentage of 15-year-old smokers, 25 per cent, in Europe, according to a Vienna doctor. Manfred Neuberger, the head of the preventive-medicine division at Vienna Medical University, added the number of Austrian youth who smoked had been steadily increasing since 1997 and that 145,891 Austrians aged 11 to 17 smoked.

Noting the average age at which young people began smoking had fallen to 11, he said: "The younger one begins, the worse the consequences will be.”

Neuberger claimed the government had been doing too little to get young people not to smoke. "It is easier to buy cigarettes than groceries,” he said, adding the government should use the 60 million Euros in cigarette taxes that young smokers paid annually to pay for a prevention campaign.

Neuberger called protection of non-smokers in Austria "a health and political time bomb” and said the country was on the level of the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Albania and Serbia in that regard. The doctor cited polls in Styria and Upper Austria that had shown 91 per cent of people who visited nightspots felt harmed by secondary smoke and 60 per cent of them wanted the law on smoking toughened.

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Smoking-related lung disease rising in Queensland  

A survey by the Australian Lung Foundation found 46 per cent of Queenslanders aged over 35 admit to being smokers, or to having been smokers in the past.

Dr Kwun Fong from Brisbane's Prince Charles Hospital says 600,000 cases of lung disease were reported in Queensland between 2007 and 2008.

He says smoking is one of the most common causes.

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Ban on smoking in cars  

RESIDENTS will be hit with a $200 on the spot fine if they are caught smoking in a car that is carrying a child.

The new state law that bans smoking in a car that is carrying children under 16 will come into effect at the beginning of next year.

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• Queensland Car Smoking Ban 

Queensland has banned smoking in cars carrying children under the age of 16.

Deputy Premier and Health Minister Paul Lucas said the new laws would start from January next year and apply on all public roads.

"These new laws are about reducing the exposure children have to tobacco smoke," Mr Lucas said in a statement on Thursday.

The legislation was passed in Queensland parliament yesterday as part of measures contained in the Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2009.

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• Almost half of all Victorian smokers still light up around children 

Almost half of Victoria's cigarette smokers still light up around children, despite an increase over the last decade in the number of homes that enforce a no-smoking policy.

New research released today by the Cancer Council Victoria found significant improvement in the efforts of parents to keep tobacco smoke away from their kids.

In 1998 just over half of surveyed households had home smoking bans, but in the latest survey just under three quarters of respondents to a phone survey said their household's regular smoker always or usually smoked outside.

If there is a child in the house, it is even more likely (82 per cent) the smoker will go outside.

However the researchers said it was not an even trend. Parents were much more likely to protect their children from cigarette smoke when they were aged under five. There was a belief that as their child gets older they are better able to tolerate or avoid smoke exposure. Also, households in lower socio-economic areas were less likely to enforce home smoking bans.

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• Call to ban smokers from funded IVF 

Couples who smoke, or are overweight, should be denied taxpayer-funded access to fertility treatments until they take steps to improve their health, a visiting expert says.

Professor Nicholas Macklon says Australia should follow the example of New Zealand and other countries, which do not publicly fund assisted reproduction services for couples who are smokers or obese.

"I suggest that Australia should consider this model," said Prof Macklon, who is head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Southampton University in England.

"... and patients should not expect to undertake infertility treatment unless they are prepared to give themselves the best chance of conceiving and having a healthy baby. . . .

Prof Macklon spoke at the Fertility Society of Australia's annual meeting, a three-day event which got under way in Perth on Monday.

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Adults still smoking around children 

FOUR in 10 Victorian smokers continue to light up around children, new figures show.

Data released from a Cancer Council Victoria survey of 4,500 people also reveals 11 per cent of regular smokers either usually or always smoke inside the home, even if living with children.

Royal Children's Hospital pediatrician Dr Rob Roseby said smoking increases the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) and elevates the risk of contracting meningococcal disease by a staggering 700 per cent. . . .

A new Quit ad campaign on the dangers of exposing children to secondhand smoke will air in Victoria from Sunday.

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Smoking linked to chronic lower back pain 

Smokers can add another health concern to their list as research shows daily tobacco use can lead to a bad back.

A major Canadian study has identified a higher rate of chronic lower back pain among people who smoke every day, particularly the young.

Professor Michael Cousins said the research suggested their smoking was interfering with pain transmitters, causing osteoporosis or affecting their spine-related blood circulation.

The condition resulted in chronic lower back pain which could also trigger a "downward spiral" in a person's life, he warned.

"Chronic pain is now regarded as a disease in its own right," said Prof Cousins, who is director of the Pain Management Research Institute at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital.

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• Smoking linked to chronic lower back pain  

A major Canadian study has identified a higher rate of chronic lower back pain among people who smoke every day, particularly the young.

Professor Michael Cousins said the research suggested their smoking was interfering with pain transmitters, causing osteoporosis or affecting their spine-related blood circulation.

The condition resulted in chronic lower back pain which could also trigger a "downward spiral" in a person's life, he warned.

"Chronic pain is now regarded as a disease in its own right," said Prof Cousins, who is director of the Pain Management Research Institute at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital. . . .

Prof Cousins commented on the study published in the journal Clinical and Investigative Medicine. . . .

The study was controlled to ensure weight, fitness, education and other factors which can differ between smokers and non-smokers did not skew the results.

"Back pain treatment programs may benefit from integrating smoking habit modification," the researchers said.

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EDITORIAL: Time to ban most deadly drug of all  

A REPORT that puts the social cost of cigarette smoking to Australia at $31 billion has prompted health groups to say it is a mandate to raise the already hefty taxes on cigarettes even further.

They are wrong, in fact it is a mandate to ban cigarettes altogether. . . .

Evidence on the negative impact of smoking on smokers health -- and of passive smoking on innocent bystanders -- is already so well documented as to be incontrovertible.

Another argument against banning cigarettes is that die-hard smokers would merely conspire to drive tobacco underground, in much the same way that the use of banned drugs has been driven underground.

This argument also fails.

The fact is that if cigarettes were banned the vast majority of people now using them would be forced to stop, saving countless lives. As for those who continued to seek out this dangerous drug, unfortunately there is no way to help those who will not be helped.

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• Smoking costs economy $31 billion 

A REPORT that reveals the $31 billion social cost of smoking to the Australian economy is a mandate for tobacco taxes to be hiked, health groups say.

The Cancer Council of Western Australia released what it says is the first independent analysis of economic arguments put forward by the tobacco industry.

The report, prepared by two health economists, assessed the economic impact of both the tobacco industry and public health measures aimed at reducing tobacco use.

It put the economic contribution of the tobacco industry at about $1 billion a year and the estimated social costs of smoking at $31 billion. . . .

Tobacco industry studies estimate cigarette and tobacco retailers provided 500,000 Australian jobs.

But Prof Lapsley said the number was overstated and the study found the industry was a minor and declining contributor to manufacturing output and employment, with profits largely remitted to parent companies overseas.

"The figures put forward by the tobacco producers include jobs of those who sell materials to the industry as well as those at the retail level for whom only a fraction of their business depends on tobacco," she said.

"It also ignores the fact that money saved by quitting or reducing smoking will be spent on other goods and services, themselves generating employment and tax revenues."

Public Health Association of Australia president Mike Daube said the tobacco industry's arguments were misleading and based on self-interest.

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Tobacco costs the Australian economy more than it’s worth (PDF) 

A new report commissioned by the Cancer Council Western Australia debunks tobacco industry arguments that higher tobacco taxes will be detrimental to the Australian economy.

‘Weighing the evidence: evaluating the social benefits and costs of the Australian tobacco industry’ is the first independent analysis of economic arguments the tobacco industry has put forward in its defence over many decades.

Director of the Cancer Council Western Australia’s Tobacco Program, Denise Sullivan said the report assessed the economic impact of both the tobacco industry and public health measures aimed at reducing tobacco use.

“The tobacco industry frequently employs economic scare tactics when policymakers are considering measures for reducing demand for tobacco, such as increases in taxes on the sale of tobacco,” Ms Sullivan said.

“This report provides the evidence that there would be few, if any negative economic consequences in further measures to curb tobacco consumption in Australia.” . . .

“A fall in demand for tobacco, while significantly affecting the tobacco industry, will have very little, if any, negative economic impact. Indeed, it is possible that the overall impact would be mildly positive.”

Professor Collins said the tobacco industry analyses of their contribution to the Australian economy were flawed.

“The industry fails to take into account healthcare costs imposed on the community for the treatment of illnesses caused by tobacco,” he said. . . .

“Clearly tobacco tax revenue paid by the tobacco industry itself does not cover the social costs of tobacco consumption,” Professor Collins said. . . .

“This report gives the Federal Government a strong mandate for a significant tobacco tax increase, which will also enable them to spend more money on public health, including further action to reduce smoking, which still kills one in two regular smokers,” Professor Daube said.

“The only people with anything to lose with this strategy are the tobacco companies themselves.”

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First smoking in car with child conviction  

A NEW South Wales woman has been convicted of smoking in a car containing a three-year-old child - in what is believed to be one of the first successes with such a prosecution under new state laws.

Since July 1, motorists in NSW have faced a $250 on-the-spot fine for smoking with a child under 16 in the car, mirroring similar laws in South Australia and Tasmania.

Alison Therese Manning, 31, was convicted of the smoking offence yesterday in Coffs Harbour Local Court, on the NSW mid-north coast, but avoided a fine or sentence.

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