http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/country/australia.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.smh.com.au/news/lifeandstyle/essential/antismoking-campaign-fails-the-mentally-ill/2008/10/07/1223145345408.html http://tobacco.org/news/272206.html Australia's smoking rate has halved during the past two decades but the massive public health push has failed people with a mental illness. Mental illness sufferers are four times more likely to smoke than the general population - a smoking rate that has stayed relatively stagnant for the past 20 years. This costs taxpayers more than $30 billion a year, according to the latest estimate from Access Economics. University of Melbourne researcher Kristen Moeller-Saxone surveyed 280 clients of a psychiatric support service in Melbourne's northern suburbs. AAP Australia Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24464219-26103,00.html http://tobacco.org/news/272146.html AUSTRALIA'S smoking rate has halved during the past two decades but the massive public health push has failed people with a mental illness. Mental illness sufferers are four times more likely to smoke than the general population - a smoking rate that has stayed relatively stagnant for the past 20 years. This costs taxpayers more than $30 billion a year, according to the latest estimate from Access Economics. University of Melbourne researcher Kristen Moeller-Saxone surveyed 280 clients of a psychiatric support service in Melbourne's northern suburbs. . . . Almost three quarters of survey respondents said they wanted to quit smoking but only 12 per cent had successfully given up smoking. Tackling smoking for people with a mental illness must be part of the mental health strategies from the federal and state and territory governments, Ms Moeller-Saxone said. The Australian Australia Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24464219-5001028,00.html?from=public_rss http://tobacco.org/news/272129.html AUSTRALIA'S smoking rate has halved during the past two decades but the massive public health push has failed people with a mental illness. Mental illness sufferers are four times more likely to smoke than the general population - a smoking rate that has stayed relatively stagnant for the past 20 years. This costs taxpayers more than $30 billion a year, according to the latest estimate from Access Economics. University of Melbourne researcher Kristen Moeller-Saxone surveyed 280 clients of a psychiatric support service in Melbourne's northern suburbs. AAP Australia Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24452724-24331,00.html http://tobacco.org/news/272111.html A study of more than a thousand women has found that females who smoke are more likely to develop major depression. Heavy smokers - those who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day - have almost double the risk of developing diagnosable depression than non smokers. It has long been known that people with depression are more likely to smoke, but this longterm study is one of the first to suggest the habit may be triggering mental illness. University of Melbourne researchers tracked healthy women for more than a decade, giving them a psychiatric assessment at the end. AAP news@heraldsun.com.au (Tamara McLean ) Australia Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/essential-industry-profile-tobacco-market/story.aspx?guid=%7B72A5DA9A-47FD-4D0A-8AC2-0E305AC4DF32%7D&dist=hppr http://tobacco.org/news/272021.html Research and Markets ( http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/52b7a9/tobacco_in_austral) has announced the addition of the "Tobacco in Australia" report to their offering. Our Tobacco in Australia industry profile is an essential resource for top-level data and analysis covering the tobacco industry. It includes detailed data on market size and segmentation, plus textual and graphical analysis of the key trends and competitive landscape, leading companies and demographic information. CBS MarketWatch press@researchandmarkets.com (SOURCE: Research and Markets Ltd. ) Australia Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/13m-cigarettes-smuggled-in-water-tanks-customs/2008/10/03/1222651300942.html http://tobacco.org/news/271979.html Customs officials have seized almost 13 million cigarettes in coordinated swoops on properties in three states. During the swoops, two Sydney men were also arrested and later charged with smuggling offences. Customs officers raided properties in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth after a month-long investigation stemming from the arrival of two sea containers in Fremantle. "The water tanks in the two containers, addressed to a business in Sydney, were allegedly found to contain concealed cartons of cigarettes," an Australian Customs spokesman said in a statement last night. AAP China Australia Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24440119-12377,00.html http://tobacco.org/news/271958.html A TEENAGER who savagely bashed a tourist because he would not give him a cigarette has been refused leave to appeal against his sentence. Shannon Wade Fisher was 19 when he attacked a 35-year-old man in Bundaberg, in central Queensland, on April 8, 2007. . . . The victim, who had been visiting Bundaberg for the Easter long weekend, was walking to the backpacker's hostel at which he was staying, when he was approached by Fisher, who asked for a cigarette. The victim refused, saying he did not have any and that the one he was smoking was from a friend. Without warning Fisher hit the man in the back of head and then repeatedly punched him until the man fell to the ground. The Australian Australia Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://express-advocate-wyong.whereilive.com.au/news/story/supreme-court-lights-up-debate/ http://tobacco.org/news/271932.html CENTRAL Coast clubs were stunned by the Supreme Court decision last week on partially-covered outdoor smoking areas. The court found Dubbo RSL was in breach of the NSW Health Department guidelines for the partial roof covering at its outdoor smoking area. The department has warned that other clubs also did not comply. Express Advocate Wyong Edition Australia Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/02/2380928.htm?section=justin http://tobacco.org/news/271927.html Customs says illegal cigarettes seized in raids across three states this week could have cost Australians more than $3.5 million in taxes. Thirteen million illegal cigarettes and almost 300 kilograms of pouch tobacco were found in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. Two Sydney men have already been charged over the haul. Up to four Victorians are also expected to be charged with illegally importing cigarettes after police raided a factory in Epping, in Melbourne's outer-north. Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australia Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/10/02/Smugglers_found_with_13_million_cigarettes http://tobacco.org/news/271926.html Customs officials have seized almost 13 million cigarettes in coordinated swoops on properties in three states. Following the swoops, police arrested and charged two Sydney men with smuggling offences. Customs officers raided properties in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth after a month-long investigation stemming from the arrival of two sea containers in Fremantle. "The water tanks in the two containers, addressed to a business in Sydney, were allegedly found to contain concealed cartons of cigarettes," an Australian Customs spokesman said in a statement tonight. AAP mynews@livenews.com.au Australia Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24439243-2862,00.html http://tobacco.org/news/271923.html CUSTOMS officials have seized almost 13 million cigarettes in co-ordinated raids on properties in Melbourne and two other states. Police charged two Sydney men with smuggling offences. Customs officers raided properties in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth on Tuesday after a month-long probe following the arrival of two containers in Fremantle. Melbourne Herald Sun news@heraldsun.com.au Australia Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/02/2380831.htm http://tobacco.org/news/271886.html Customs officers have seized millions of illegally-imported cigarettes from a factory in Epping in Melbourne's outer north. The cigarettes were concealed in water tanks and smuggled into Australia aboard a cargo ship from China. Australian Broadcasting Corporation China Australia Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/kill-the-tobacco-industry-or-it-will-keep-killing/2008/10/01/1222651169026.html http://tobacco.org/news/271838.html This month in Rio de Janeiro, the global tobacco industry's annual conference features a special session on what many are seeing as its Armageddon: plain, generic packaging. All packs are identical except for the brand name, printed in standard font. No colours, no logos, no box variations. Nothing but the brand and the health warning. The British Government has released a consultation paper on the idea. Morgan Stanley advised its clients recently that "homogenous packaging" would "significantly restrict the industry's ability to promote their products". Tobacco Journal International, the industry's main trade journal, had as its latest cover story a warning: "Plain packaging can kill your business." That's the whole idea, ladies and gentlemen. . . . The final difference between tobacco and prescribed drugs is packaging. When you pick up your next prescription, check out the plain, dull box. It is not designed to express the product's "personality" or to confer prestige or some other desirable attribute in the user. It simply states the drug's name, dosage and any contraindications. Tobacco products, by contrast, are the result of ongoing market testing to ensure they are as attractive and beguiling as possible, particularly to what the industry euphemistically calls "starters" or "young adult smokers". Research released this week by Professor Melanie Wakefield, from the Cancer Council Victoria, shows how smokers feel about plain packaged cigarettes. When shown regular packaged brands and the dull, generic packs, the 813 smokers rated the dull packs as much less attractive and popular, and those who would smoke them as much less stylish, outgoing and mature than smokers of the original pack. They inferred that cigarettes from the plain packs would be less satisfying and of lower quality. The federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, has repeatedly put prevention front and centre of national health policy. By making Australia lead the world - by taking a step that the history of tobacco control suggests is inevitable - she could start global dominoes tumbling, and save millions of lives. If the tobacco industry thinks plain packaging will kill its business, no stronger recommendation is available. Sydney Morning Herald Australia Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://news.theage.com.au/national/smoking-may-trigger-depression-in-women-20081001-4rwk.html http://tobacco.org/news/271816.html new Australian research suggests the addictive habit could be taking a toll on the mind too. A study of more than a thousand women has found that females who smoke are more likely to develop major depression. Heavy smokers - those who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day - have almost double the risk of developing diagnosable depression than non smokers. . . . University of Melbourne researchers tracked healthy women for more than a decade, giving them a psychiatric assessment at the end. "It was at this point we were able to determine if depression had developed and investigate whether or not smoking pre-dated the onset of depression," said study leader Professor Julie Pasco. Another study of 671 healthy women revealed 15 per cent of smokers went on to develop depression, compared to 6.5 per cent of non smokers. The Age Australia Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/the-smoking-gun-is-always-loaded/2008/09/22/1221935537202.html http://tobacco.org/news/271790.html On September 25, 1878, English readers of that venerable broadsheet, The Times, found a letter to the editor from one Dr Charles R. Drysdale. . . . The Cancer Institute of NSW conceded last month it knew that everyone knew that smoking was bad for you. In its latest advertising campaign, it has used a song by Leonard Cohen - whose vocal cords fumigated their way through much of the last century - to tell us that it knows we know. For 60 seconds, Cohen wheezes through Everybody Knows - a song apparently composed in a cigarette and whiskey haze - accompanied by the montage of the congested arteries, cancers and gangrene that we've grown, if not to love, then at least to respect. Cohen's probably got the idea now, too. The lesson of the past 130 years of anti-smoking experience is that telling people something is bad for them will not, in itself, change behaviour, especially when that behaviour is addictive or reinforced by peers. The age group most likely to start smoking - the young - is also the least likely to suffer congestive heart failure, lung cancer or disco fever anytime soon (or to actually know who Leonard Cohen is). One side effect of anti-smoking campaigns has always been that they help smokers define themselves as a group - be it the outsider, the rebel, or those with the oxygen tank. Sydney Morning Herald Australia Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:00:00 GMT