How can anti-smoking campaigns be targeted more effectively at Australia’s Indigenous youth? It’s a good question, and one that, as yet, has proven difficult to answer.
Almost half of all Aboriginal and…
There’s little evidence to support a ban based on the health harms of cigarette smoke in wide, open spaces.
AAP/April Fonti
Support for smoke-free laws is near universal in Australia. In the late 1980s and 90s, these laws were primarily advocated and adopted on the premise that employees shouldn’t be continuously exposed to…
New Zealand wants to largely be tobacco free by 2025; Finland has set 2040 as its target date.
Iago A R
It’s been 100 years since the first medical textbook identified a link between smoking tobacco and lung cancer. So how strange is it that in 2012 we can walk into Coles and Woolworths and buy cigarettes…
Former health minister Nicola Roxon has won numerous awards for the plain packaging legislation.
AAp/Tracey Nearmy
It isn’t often that an Australian minister visits the United States to acclaim, is hailed as a “global champion” and receives a major award to accompany assorted national and international awards already…
The first public health laws governed sanitation and led to clean piped drinking water.
Darren Stueber
OBESE NATION: It’s time to admit it – Australia is becoming an obese nation. This series looks at how this has happened and more importantly, what we can do to stop the obesity epidemic.
Today, we look…
Cigarettes are the only commercial product that kills one in two of its regular users when consumed as intended.
Jayaprakash R/Flickr
Big Tobacco’s desperate efforts to oppose the introduction of tobacco plain packaging have been supported by a potpourri of consulting, legal, advertising, public relations and lobbying organisations…
Australians should be more aware of the health effects of pollution.
OZinOH
Every time smokers pull a cigarette pack out of their pocket, they’re reminded of the harms their habit is likely to cause. In much the same way, Australian petrol stations should display health warnings…
Patches, gums and sprays don’t increase your chances of quitting.
Alexa Graham
Pharmaceutical companies have aggressively promoted nicotine replacement patches, chewing gums, inhalers and nasal sprays as effective tools to improve smokers' chances of quitting for more than 20 years…
Plain packaging is one of many health reforms to enter or pass through parliament last week.
AAP
The final sitting of federal parliament last week lacked no drama, ending with the sudden induction of Peter Slipper as speaker. It was also a mammoth week for health legislation, with the passing of the…
It’s expected that the removal of trademarked images, designs and colours from tobacco packaging will make smoking less attractive.
Valentin.Ottone
Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced today that the implementation of plain packaging for tobacco products will be pushed back until December 1 next year.
The Tobacco Plain Packaging Bill passed through…
Over time, smokers gain as much weight as the rest of the population.
Flickr/Difei Li
One of the few positives put forward by smokers to justify their habit is that it helps keep their weight in check. And while smoking may be harmful to their health, so is obesity.
So how does this claim…
Don Draper may like a smoke but the madmen of the tobacco industry do all they can to undermine public health.
collider.com
Non-communicable diseases – Matthew Rimmer examines plain packaging as a way to curb tobacco use. Smoking is one of the biggest causes of non-communicable diseases.
In an episode of the television show…
More than seven thousand Australians die each year of lung cancer but not all are smokers.
Flickr/Social is better
Each year 40,000 Australians die from cancer-related illness – the number one cause being lung cancer.
Surprised? You’re not alone.
According to a recent Galaxy poll which asked asked Australians which…
Legislation requiring tobacco products to be in plain packaging was passed by the House of Representatives last night. This is the first such measure in the world to come so close to becoming law.
We…
Hookahs are actually more dangerous because users are likely to puff more frequently.
After decades of successful anti-tobacco campaigns, we’re all familiar with the risks of smoking. But how do the health harms of cigarettes compare with those of other smoking devices?
The hookah, also…
Big Tobacco will exploit the proposed investment provisions in the TPPA to undermine regulatory attempts.
AAP
With the tabling of the Plain Packaging Bill in Parliament this week, Australia again stands at the forefront of the struggle against Big Tobacco.
But this stance is under attack in a whole new set of…
Health promotion has a lot of catching up to do on social media.
Steve Kay
Smokers who quit with the assistance of a text messaging service are nearly twice as likely to be smoke-free six months later than smokers with no support, according to a study published this week in The…
Is legal action becoming a bad habit for tobacco companies?
effb/Flickr
This week’s legal action by tobacco giant Philip Morris to overturn the federal government’s plain packaging proposals is not its first attempt to stifle anti-tobacco legislation.
Philip Morris is also…
In its latest attempt to derail the plain cigarette packaging legislation, Big Tobacco has pulled out one of its favourite pro-tobacco messages: say no to a nanny state.
The print advertisements and website…
Mentally ill Australians have a life expectancy 25 years lower than the rest of the population.
AAP
Almost half of all cigarettes smoked in Australia, the US and the UK are smoked by people with a mental illness. It’s a startling statistic and it paints a grim picture for the physical health of the one…
Dame Elisabeth Murdoch says a price on carbon is a good idea.
AAP
How interesting to see Rupert Murdoch’s mother, Dame Elisabeth, gracing the front pages of Fairfax papers, signing a letter supporting putting a price on carbon.
Her son, Rupert Murdoch has also stated…
Plain packaging could spell the death of the cigarette brand in Australia and beyond.
thana/flickr
British American Tobacco Australia has launched yet another attack on the Australian government’s plain packaging legislation. On top of its latest “Where’s the proof?” campaign, launched today, it is…
When branding is removed smokers rate the product as less appealing.
AAP
For a policy the tobacco industry claims “won’t work” or that there “is no evidence” to support its implementation, plain packaging has elicited a deafening chorus of conflicting arguments as to why it…
Young smokers would need to sit an interview before they could buy cigarettes.
AAP
Under this proposal, anyone who wanted to buy a tobacco product would need to have a licence. This wouldn’t happen overnight – we would need to identify a starting point to the scheme, which might be five…
The WTO allows countries to take measures “necessary for public health.”
AAP
The Government’s plan to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products has been raised at the Council for TRIPS meeting in Geneva this week.
In a note to TRIPS delegates, the Indonesian Government has…
Part of the British American Tobacco Australia campaign launched today.
The tobacco industry has launched a national media campaign today, questioning the Federal Government’s proposed plain packaging legislation.
It will also release a series of confidential government documents…
People in the developing world are more likely to have lifestyle and infectious diseases.
AAP
On Sunday, China banned smoking in public places such as restaurants, bars and other indoor spaces.
But a lack of public understanding about the dangers of smoking in the nation of 300 million smokers…
The AAR campaign against plain cigarette packaging is funded by big tobacco.
Jessica Rabbit/Flickr
Ever since Pope Urban VII spent part of his 13-day reign in 1590 threatening smokers with excommunication, smoking regulation has been controversial. And the response from tobacco supporters and companies…
The designs have been chosen to turn teens off smoking.
AAP
Cigarette packages have become the last bastion of advertising for tobacco manufacturers. If the Federal Government wins its war against big tobacco, all cigarette packages will be subject to designs chosen…
Although banned from sale in Australia, e-cigarettes are readily available online.
AAP
On a recent long-haul flight, with very limited movie options, I watched the Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp movie The Tourist (two thumbs firmly down).
A particular scene on a train to Venice did catch…
Incremental measures have reduced smoking among men from 72% in 1945 to 21% in 2007.
When it comes to branding and advertising, much of what we are exposed to creates only marginal difference. But even small differences can tip the balance toward a particular choice, and plain packaging…
