Tough anti-smoking Reform Proposed

AUSTRALIA – A 10-point proposal detailing initiatives to help Australians kick their $5 billion habit has been submitted to the Federal health department by anti-smoking lobbyists, according from The Courier Mail.

Among the initiatives included in the plan are issuing licenses to smoke, producing foul-tasting cigarettes, and raising the age limit to purchase tobacco. The graphic, stomach-churning images of bodily harm caused by smoking will remain on the packaging, but in “drab colour [as] a step to de-glamourise smoking,” Professor Simon Chapman from the World Health Organisation told The Courier Mail.

The plan is to combat smoking in Australia within the next 15 years. While the number of Aussies who smoke has dropped by 40 per cent since 1980, the latest figures show that one in five are still puffing.

Anti-smoking and healthy lifestyle campaigns have also had little effect on the Aboriginal population, where one in five deaths is caused by smoking. ABC News reported this week that a Tasmanian health project led by four workers from the Flinders Island Aboriginal Association will set out to encourage communities to kick the habit and determine a better anti-smoking campaign strategy.

According to the article, half of Australia’s Aboriginals are smokers.

Since the mid-nineties, smoking in Australia has been banned and fineable in public bars, restaurants and on the outdoor patio, beaches, sport stadiums, street malls, and in areas where children are present.

SOURCE: Business Review Australia

Category: Community