South Australia aims low

The South Australian government has said that it plans to reduce the state’s smoking rate from its 2014 level of 12.8 percent to eight percent during the next four years, according to a ninemsn story relayed by the TMA.

The target is close to the five percent incidence often quoted as the point at which smoking is seen to have been eliminated.

Substance Abuse Minister Leesa Vlahos said the new strategy would use mass media campaigns and new Quitline services to ensure that South Australians who smoked were given every opportunity to quit.

Cancer Council SA chief executive Lincoln Size said the group was adding Webchat, an online cessation support service, to its Quitline service.

He urged people to call the Quitline because, he said, independent studies had shown that people who used the Quitline were twice as likely as those who didn’t use it to succeed in their quit attempts.