With a federal government-funded trial about to test the viability of electronic cigarettes as a safer, permanent replacement for tobacco, Australia could become the first major nation to outlaw smoking completely, according to a story by Eamonn Duff for the Sydney Morning Herald.
As part of its anti-smoking reform agenda, the previous Labor government committed more than $1 million to a pioneering study that, by 2015, will determine whether e-cigarettes could be used to phase out traditional cigarettes altogether.
But it is uncertain whether the new coalition government will prove equally committed to the policy.
Coral Gartner, who is due shortly to lead a trial of 1,600 smokers at the University of Queensland’s centre for clinical research, said that electronic cigarettes had the potential to be beneficial to public health if they were used to replace completely traditional cigarettes.
“It would be a shame not to explore how they could be used to maximize public health while trying to minimize potential unwanted effects such as making smoking appear glamorous,” Gartner added.