poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Messages
- 11,543
YOUR HEALTH: World No Tobacco Day is when the world's deadliest drug butts out
TODAY is World No Tobacco Day, when the attention of the world is turned to the dangers of smoking and how we can decrease the number of lives destroyed by this most dangerous of drugs.
It is estimated five million people a year die as a direct result of tobacco use, and a further 600,000 non-smokers die after being exposed to secondhand smoke.
Smoking is implicated in 10 per cent of adult deaths, and as much as half the current tobacco-using population will die of tobacco-related illness.
My father became one of these statistics last year when smoking-induced lung cancer prematurely ended his life.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2011-12 almost three million Australians over the age of 18 (16 per cent of the population) smoked daily. The ACT had the nation's lowest smoking rate (13.4 per cent) while Tasmania had the highest (23.2 per cent).
Queensland smoking rates sit around the middle at 15.5 per cent, and this leads to nearly 3500 deaths a year - 10 times the state road toll.
Last weekend, at a ceremony in Sydney, the Australian Medical Association gave Queensland and Victoria a joint "dirty ashtray" award for doing the least in the preceding year to discourage smoking.
This will no doubt be presented to Health Minister Lawrence Springborg, with a request for more to be done.
In all states, higher smoking rates are associated with being indigenous, living rurally and having lower levels of education.
But compared with the rest of the world, Australia is doing well, and the OECD has described our steadily falling smoking rates as "remarkable". From a peak of over 70 per cent of men at the end of World War II, smoking rates are now measured in their teens.
A number of Australian initiatives including increased taxes, bans on advertising and smoking in restaurants and in cars with children have had an effect, and we hope to see even greater reductions in the future as the full effect of plain packaging starts to be seen.
Somewhat concerning, though, are the statistics for our youngest Australians.
In the 12-17 age group, girls seem to be taking up smoking at almost the same rate as boys, with as many as 6-7 per cent of our young people starting the habit despite intensive education campaigns and changing social pressures.
Knowing what we do now, I doubt that tobacco would ever have been able to be sold legally in corner shops. Instead, everybody would be aware of the terrible health effects it has.
The debilitating illnesses such as lung and heart disease, strokes and cancers would decrease, the population would be healthier and the nation's struggling health system would save billions of dollars.
There is simply no safe level of smoking, but as nearly half the adult population has at one time or another smoked, it remains vital that we help people addicted to this drug kick the habit.
Let's hope the downward trend continues and by next World No Tobacco Day Queensland leads the way in smoking prevention rather than lagging behind.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...t-drug-butts-out/story-e6frerdf-1226654028160
TODAY is World No Tobacco Day, when the attention of the world is turned to the dangers of smoking and how we can decrease the number of lives destroyed by this most dangerous of drugs.
It is estimated five million people a year die as a direct result of tobacco use, and a further 600,000 non-smokers die after being exposed to secondhand smoke.
Smoking is implicated in 10 per cent of adult deaths, and as much as half the current tobacco-using population will die of tobacco-related illness.
My father became one of these statistics last year when smoking-induced lung cancer prematurely ended his life.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2011-12 almost three million Australians over the age of 18 (16 per cent of the population) smoked daily. The ACT had the nation's lowest smoking rate (13.4 per cent) while Tasmania had the highest (23.2 per cent).
Queensland smoking rates sit around the middle at 15.5 per cent, and this leads to nearly 3500 deaths a year - 10 times the state road toll.
Last weekend, at a ceremony in Sydney, the Australian Medical Association gave Queensland and Victoria a joint "dirty ashtray" award for doing the least in the preceding year to discourage smoking.
This will no doubt be presented to Health Minister Lawrence Springborg, with a request for more to be done.
In all states, higher smoking rates are associated with being indigenous, living rurally and having lower levels of education.
But compared with the rest of the world, Australia is doing well, and the OECD has described our steadily falling smoking rates as "remarkable". From a peak of over 70 per cent of men at the end of World War II, smoking rates are now measured in their teens.
A number of Australian initiatives including increased taxes, bans on advertising and smoking in restaurants and in cars with children have had an effect, and we hope to see even greater reductions in the future as the full effect of plain packaging starts to be seen.
Somewhat concerning, though, are the statistics for our youngest Australians.
In the 12-17 age group, girls seem to be taking up smoking at almost the same rate as boys, with as many as 6-7 per cent of our young people starting the habit despite intensive education campaigns and changing social pressures.
Knowing what we do now, I doubt that tobacco would ever have been able to be sold legally in corner shops. Instead, everybody would be aware of the terrible health effects it has.
The debilitating illnesses such as lung and heart disease, strokes and cancers would decrease, the population would be healthier and the nation's struggling health system would save billions of dollars.
There is simply no safe level of smoking, but as nearly half the adult population has at one time or another smoked, it remains vital that we help people addicted to this drug kick the habit.
Let's hope the downward trend continues and by next World No Tobacco Day Queensland leads the way in smoking prevention rather than lagging behind.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...t-drug-butts-out/story-e6frerdf-1226654028160
