Going up in smoke
YOUNG men are taking up smoking at an increasing rate.
Six years after drab plain packaging and massive tax hikes were introduced to curb tobacco use we’ve failed to meet the target of reducing the daily smoking rate to 10 per cent.
And based on the most recent data, in 2016 daily smoking rates actually increased among men aged 25-29: up to 19.3 per cent from 17.3 per cent in 2013. Smoking also increased among men aged 40-49.
While daily smoking rates initially plunged from 15.1 per cent to 12.8 per cent after the tough new measures, the latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare count shows the overall rate fell only slightly to 12.2 per cent between 2013 and 2016.
When weekly smokers are added to the tally, 14 per cent of Australians were still smoking in 2016 and, more recent state-based data for 2017 and 2018 shows smoking rates still well above 10 per cent.
This is even though a series of punishing tax hikes means a packet of 30 cigarettes now costs $35.20, or more than $1 per stick.
Experts say the reason is there has been no federally funded mass media advertising campaigns warning of the dangers and encouraging people to quit since 2012, the tobacco industry has cut prices and people are shifting to cheaper roll-your-own.
The good news is that since 2001, the proportion of 14 to 19-year-olds who had never smoked increased from 75 per cent to 94 per cent.
Associate Professor Colin Mendelsohn, chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association, says the slowdown in the decline in smoking is “very worrying”.
“Smoking remains the leading modifiable cause of death and illness in Australia and we are clearly losing the battle to contain it.”