One in two males and one in four females will develop cancer by the time they reach the age of 75. One in eight cancer cases, and one in five cancer deaths, are caused by smoking.
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Tasmania has the second highest prevalence of cancers and the second highest number of deaths from the disease per head of capita. And sadly, we also continue to have the highest smoking rates of all Australian states. The most common forms of the illness in Tasmania are prostate, colorectal, breast, melanoma and lung cancers. And long-term smokers are a higher risk of developing lung cancer. The correlation and statistics speak for itself.
On Thursday, Windermere MLC Ivan Dean’s bid to amend the Public Health Amendment (Healthy Tasmania) Bill to ban the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after the year 2000 was raised again. The item has been on the Legislative Council agenda for months and Mr Dean is on the record as saying that he will not back down from his bid to limit tobacco sales even though he believes the bill will win support.
Tobacco-free advocacy group SmokeFree Tasmania believes the move to have a tobacco-free generation will help reduce the smoking rate. Others believe that prohibition will only create a black market for tobacco. The state government has distanced itself from this proposal, saying it does not support Mr Dean’s submission, but would rather invest in education, preventative health programs and targeted quit campaigns to reduce the rate of smoking.
The government has set the goal of reducing smoking rates below the national average by 2025, and halve the gap in smoking rates for those under 25. It is also increasing penalties for selling or supplying cigarettes to a child.
In February, Quit Tasmania launched its 16 Cancers campaign, highlighting that lesser known cancers can be caused by smoking; while last month it launched Quit Stalling that encourages men that smoke to stop making excuses for their tobacco habit.
Stopping people with an engrained addition to nicotine will be no easy feat and it will no doubt take a multi-faceted approach to reduce the number of people who smoke. Preventing people from taking up the habit in the first place is arguably the best way forward. Education around the dangers of smoking and highlighting the potential health risks remains the best weapon we have in the fight to reduce smoking-related illnesses and cancer-related mortality rates.
