Tag: Australia

  • Call to ban cigarettes

    Call to ban cigarettes

    A leading Australian health researcher has called for a total ban on combustible cigarettes after a new study found that millions of deaths could be prevented if smokers switched to electronic cigarettes, according to a story by Melissa Cunningham for theage.com.au.

    Menzies School of Health researcher Dr. Marita Hefler says the rapid evolution of alternative nicotine products, such as e-cigarettes, meant outlawing combustible tobacco, including cigarettes, was now possible.

    “Any other consumer product that kills up to two-thirds of its long-term users remaining legal is unimaginable,” Hefler was quoted as saying.

    “Even if the political will had existed for a sales ban, until recently, no products could match the nicotine delivery efficiency of combustible tobacco with substantially less harm, rendering a sales ban a non-viable option due to the risk of a black market.”

    Hefler’s push comes in the wake of findings of a new study in the US which examined the health impacts of a large-scale switch from tobacco to e-cigarettes. The results of the study were reported here on October 3 under the heading Vaping a life saver.

    Cunningham’s story is at: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/top-doctor-calls-for-total-ban-on-cigarettes-switch-to-ecigarettes-20171002-gysrgt.html.

  • Call to pay quitters

    Call to pay quitters

    Australia is being urged to invest in providing financial incentives for people to quit tobacco smoking.

    Despite some of the strictest tobacco control policies in the world, recent data shows the decline in smoking in Australia has stalled, according to a story on theconversation.com.

    “First-line” quitting strategies available in Australia, such as nicotine patches, are said to provide a success rate of about seven percent, or a failure rate of about 93 percent.

    Such a success rate, the story said, would not allow Australia to achieve its nine percent smoking-rate target by 2020, given that the rate stands at about 14 percent now.

    ‘With current approaches and policies adopted in Australia having arguably lost their edge, and with more controversial approaches such as e-cigarettes caught up in political quicksand, let’s invest in the strategies that do work,’ the story said.

    ‘One evidence-based approach that has not received much attention in Australia is using financial incentives. Incentives programs reward quitters for not smoking by giving them a monetary voucher.

    ‘The quitter’s abstinence is verified using biochemical tests of either their saliva, urine or breath.’

    The story said that financial incentive programs comprised one of the most effective and cost-effective strategies for getting people to quit.

    ‘They are considered the most effective strategy for pregnant smokers,’ it said.

    ‘They are also cost effective, with the calculated net benefit (after taking into account … the incentives used) being around A$4,300 per smoker, per attempt to quit.

    ‘There have been a number of studies showing their benefits.’

    The full story is at: https://theconversation.com/why-we-should-pay-people-to-stop-smoking-84058.

  • Threat of major lawsuit

    Threat of major lawsuit

    Suing ‘big tobacco’ for the costs of smoking-related illnesses in Australia is on the radar of an organization set up by billionaire iron ore magnate and philanthropist Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, according to a story by James Carmody, Kate Lambe and David Weber for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

    The $75-million Eliminate Cancer Initiative (ECI), funded by Mr Forrest and his wife Nicola, is said to be seeking legal advice on the potential to mount a case seeking billions of dollars in compensation from tobacco companies.

    ECI is quoted as saying that the potential litigation would likely be based on a landmark Canadian lawsuit where three tobacco companies were ordered to pay more than $15.6 billion in damages to smokers in Quebec.

    “What we do need to keep in mind is the impact and cost associated with those smokers who are now coming through the healthcare system,” ECI COO Bruce Mansfield said.

    “We do need to recognise that there is a cost associated with tobacco and therefore an approach that needs to be considered very sensibly is for those industries to actually take some of the burden away from the community and of course the government.”

    Mr Forrest said that to tackle cancer, smoking must also be tackled because it was the single-greatest cause of preventable death.

    The full story is at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-30/andrew-forrest-cancer-centre-to-take-on-tobacco-industry/9004204.

  • Mice given third degree

    Mice given third degree

    Mice exposed to household fabrics contaminated with ‘third-hand’ tobacco smoke showed changes in biological markers of health after only one month, according to a story in The Conversation (Australia) citing a recent study. After six months, the mice showed evidence of liver damage and insulin resistance, symptoms that usually precede the development of type 2 diabetes.

    The story described third-hand smoke as the residue left behind after cigarettes are smoked. ‘Once the smoke clears, after a cigarette has been extinguished, nicotine and other harmful chemicals left behind can stick to surfaces and fabrics,’ the story said. ‘This residue is known as third-hand smoke.’

    The Conversation said that the idea of third-hand smoke had been around for a few decades, but that it had come to prominence in 2009 after a study by Jonathan Winickoff, an assistant professor of paediatrics at Harvard Medical School, had identified a link between parents’ belief that third-hand smoke might cause harm and the likelihood they would prohibit smoking within their homes.

    ‘The new mouse model study investigated the effects of third-hand smoke exposure over time on animal health (the first study to do so),’ the story said. ‘The researchers, from the University of California, Riverside, used a smoking machine to create third-hand-smoke-contaminated household fabrics in mice cages, including curtain material, upholstery and carpet. Once the fabrics showed levels likely to be found in smokers’ homes, the mice were placed in the cage and monitored over a period of six months.

    ‘After just one month, the mice showed changes in markers of health in the blood serum, liver and brain tissues. The range and severity of the changes on the health of mice got progressively worse the longer they were exposed.

    ‘After four months, the mice showed increases in factors related to oxidative stress and liver damage. Fasting glucose and insulin levels increased with third-hand smoke exposure and, after four months, the mice already had a[n] increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

    ‘The speed at which third-hand smoke residues cause measurable health effects in the mice is surprising. How the health effects observed in mice translate to humans, though, remains an open question.’

  • End-game restarted

    End-game restarted

    An independent member of the Legislative Council of Tasmania, Australia, has said he will seek to have banned the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2000, according to a Mercury story by Blair Richards, relayed by the TMA.

    Ivan Dean said he would seek to bring about the ban by introducing an amendment to a current bill that seeks to regulate vapor products and require smoking cessation information at point-of-sale.

    Dean previously introduced legislation, called the Tobacco Free Generation Bill, which is still on the Legislative Council’s books.

    Kathryn Barnsley of SmokeFree Tasmania said the new measure “would provide a generational firebreak and protect our children and adolescents from these terrible diseases and death”.

    Meanwhile, Dean said he would seek also an amendment to extend the three-meter non-smoking area around schools and hospitals to 10 meters.

    Tasmania backed away from a proposal last year that would have raised the minimum tobacco-sales age from 21 to 25.

  • Running out of steam

    Running out of steam

    The number of smokers in Australia has increased for the first time since anti-smoking campaigns were ramped up a generation ago, casting doubt on the effectiveness of cigarette tax increases, according to a story by Adam Creighton for The Australian.

    Creighton quoted Dr. Colin Mendelsohn, an expert in public health at the University of New South Wales, as saying that an unexpected standstill in the national smoking rate since 2013 combined with a rapid population growth had pushed up the number of regular smokers by more than 21,000 to 2.4 million.

    Mendelsohn said Australia’s “punitive and coercive” policies to curb smoking had “run out of steam”.

    “For the first time ever, there has been no statistically significant reduction in the smoking rate, and an increase in the number of smokers in Australia,” he reportedly told The Australian, noting the nation’s smoking rate was now higher than the US’ smoking rate for the first time in a decade. “This is despite plain packaging and the most expensive cigarette prices in the world.”

    Mendelsohn said plain packaging and tax increases had worked better for younger smokers than for older smokers, noting regular smoking rates for 12-to-17-year-olds had halved to 1.5 percent during the past three years. “But we’re left with established, older smokers who can’t or won’t quit. The strategy of higher prices isn’t working for them,” he said.

    A standard pack of Marlboro cigarettes averages $25.10 in Australia according to price comparison website Numbeo, compared with $14.80 in Britain, $8.50 in the US and $1.90 in Indonesia.

    There was a law of diminishing returns associated with price increases, said Mendelsohn, and a lot of smokers were digging their heels in. High prices were fuelling a black market.

    Meanwhile, Dr. Alex Wodak, director of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, endorsed Mendelsohn’s analysis and concerns. “Australia is doing everything right in terms of tobacco control, but one key difference with the UK and USA, where smoking rates have dropped, is our hostility to e-cigarettes,” he said.

    Creighton’s story is at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/more-smokers-lighting-up-despite-everincreasing-taxes/newsstory/190014e7306548c49fc372dabb5a0555.

  • Customs officers charged

    Customs officers charged

    Two members of a cell of allegedly corrupt Customs officers have been charged as part of a series of raids targeting organised crime figures in Australia and Dubai this week, according to a story by Dan Oakes for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

    Australian Customs official Craig Richard Eakin and former Customs employee Johayna Merhi were said to have been charged this week with corruption offences over an alleged tobacco smuggling ring.

    ‘Documents obtained by the ABC suggest Eakin and Merhi are allegedly the latest in a line of Sydney-based Customs officers suspected of passing information to members of the Jomaa family and its associates for years, which police allege allowed the smuggling of cigarettes and drugs into Australia,’ Oakes wrote.

    ‘The arrests raise questions about how the influence of the family was allegedly allowed to permeate Customs for so many years, despite warnings from law enforcement agencies.’

    Oakes’ story is at: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2017-08-10/customs-officers-suspected-of-passing-information-to-alleged-crime-figures/1692686

  • Criminals given “leg-up”

    Criminals given “leg-up”

    An Australian Liberal-party backbencher fears his government may be giving a “leg-up” to organized criminals by continuing to bump-up tobacco taxes, according to a story by Roje Adaimy for the Australian Associated Press.

    Craig Kelly told parliament on Tuesday the retail price of a pack of cigarettes was headed toward $40 in Australia, yet packs were being ‘sold wholesale in Asia for the equivalent of $1’.

    He agrees the extra revenue from the latest tax increase will help repair the budget and that the high cost of smoking could deter people from smoking.

    “But my concern that what will happen, is we’ll be basically creating prohibition by price,” Kelly was reported to have said.

    “The risk is that we’re going to turbocharge the illicit and underground market, we’re going to turbocharge smuggling, we’re going to turbocharge black market cigarettes and we’ll be giving a leg up to organised crime.”

    According to Kelly, about 14 percent of the cigarettes sold in Australia are illicit, and he wants law enforcement agencies to be given more resources to monitor the trade.

    While Mr Kelly is happy to see fewer young people smoking and wants rates to drop to zero, he questioned whether higher prices were just diverting them to other drugs.

    “There is a real risk because of the price sensitive nature of cigarettes that we may merely be trading one health hazard for another,” he said.

    His comments came as the lower house passed a bill to increase the tax on roll-your-own cigarette tobacco, cigars, snuff, and other products to bring them in line with manufactured cigarettes.

    The change, announced in the May budget, will be made over four years and is expected to rake in $360 million.

  • An education in smoking

    An education in smoking

    A school in Australia is permitting students as young as 15 to have a smoking break at lunch and other recess periods, according to an independent.co.uk story.

    Carolyn Blanden, principal at The Warakirri College in Sydney, said she believed that relaxed rules would encourage the students to keep attending school.

    “At my school, you can come with bright blue hair and metal in your face,” Blanden told Australia’s Daily Telegraph.

    “And if you need to have a smoke, that’s OK too.”

    Blanden said she would rather her students smoked cigarettes, with all the health risks that involved, than have them “floating around the streets or in detention”.

    The principal has previously worked at fee-paying private schools but says her current job is the “most rewarding work I think I’ve ever done”.

    Many of the school’s students are from broken homes, with many of their parents either in jail or battling drug addiction.

    Under Wreaker’s curriculum, students can study three subjects per year rather than six for two years.

    The school is said to be similar to an adult learning environment, with no fees or uniforms. There is a gym and students are allowed to leave the campus grounds when not in class.

    Many of the children who graduated Year 10 (age 14-16) in 2016 were the first in their families to achieve a Record of School Achievement

  • Psychiatrists say lift e-ban

    Psychiatrists say lift e-ban

    Australia’s psychiatrists are urging the government to lift its ban on nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes, saying their mentally ill patients, many of whom are heavy smokers, could ‘significantly benefit’ from the devices, according to a story by Esther Han for the Sydney Morning Herald.

    In a submission to the federal government’s e-cigarette inquiry, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) said the mentally ill were more likely to smoke than were those who were not mentally ill, and that they were more likely than were other smokers to be heavy smokers, which meant their life expectancy was 20 years less than that of the general population.

    ‘E-cigarettes … provide a safer way to deliver nicotine to those who are unable to stop smoking, thereby minimising the harms associated with smoking tobacco and reducing some of the health disparities,’ the submission said.

    ‘The RANZCP therefore supports a cautious approach that takes into account …the significant health benefits which these products present.’

    The submission marks the first time a specialist medical college or major health group has broken ranks with Australia’s medical fraternity, which largely wants the ban on nicotine-containing e-cigarettes maintained because, they say, the safety of these devices and their efficacy as quitting aids are unclear.

    It is legal to buy ‘vaping’ devices, but it is unlawful to sell, possess or use nicotine-containing ones because the chemical is classified as a poison.

    This year the Therapeutic Goods Administration rejected an application to exempt the drug from the dangerous poisons list.

    Professor David Castle, RANZCP board member, said the current restrictions on tobacco were not helping people with mental illness and e-cigarettes needed to be made available, albeit with caveats.

    Seventy per cent of people with schizophrenia and 61 percent of people with bipolar disorder are smokers, compared to 16 percent of those without mental health problems, studies show.