‘Alarming smoking prevalence in Austria’

Austrians seem to be bucking the trend by smoking more than ever before, according to a story in The Local citing Zoltán Massay-Kosubek, the policy co-ordinator at the European Public Health Alliance.

No figures were given to support the claim that smoking was on the increase, but the rise was put down mainly to younger people entering the market.

And it was suggested that one reason why younger people were entering the market was that Austria’s minimum age for purchasing tobacco was 16.

But the report suggested too that while young people were entering the market, relatively few people were quitting. Austria was lagging behind the rest of Europe in getting smokers to quit their habit.

Massay-Kosubek was said to have told The Local that there were “two main causes of the alarming smoking prevalence in Austria: one the inappropriate enforcement of existing anti-tobacco legislation and two, the lack of ambition as regards regulating tobacco and smoking”.

The full story is at: http://www.thelocal.at/20140916/austrians-still-love-to-smoke.