The government’s disappointing U-turn over plain packaging of tobacco has dealt a blow to campaigners and shows a government attempting to subvert its own consultation process. The Conservative party’s…
We don’t know if anti-smoking campaigns have worked, or if they’re causing more harm than good.
Rusty Stewart
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…
Digitally-aged image demonstrating the effects of smoking (non-smoker on left, smoker on right).
Curtin University
Showing young people computer-generated images illustrating the effects of smoking on their appearance later in life may encourage them to quit, a new study has found. The findings are published in the…
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…
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 asked…
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…
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…