The case against tobacco

Tobacco use is the single largest cause of preventable death and disease in Australia, killing over 15,000 Australians each year, and costing more than $31 billion in economic and social costs. Smoking is a known cause of disease, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, respiratory disease, asthma, and sudden infant death syndrome.  Cigarettes kill half of all regular smokers.

Tobacco use is not only dangerous to smokers; it also results in harm to non-smokers from passive smoking, resulting both in death and substantial morbidity.

Smoking has declined dramatically in recent years.  In 2010  14.9% of Western Australian adults and 4.8% of 12-17 year olds in Western Australia were regular smokers. Even more dramatically, 74% of young people have never smoked, compared to 30% in 1984. On this basis, Professor D'Arcy Holman and Victoria Gray from the School of Population Health at the University of Western Australia have estimated that approximately 40,000 further smoking-related deaths will be prevented over the next 40 years.

The reality remains, however, that smoking is our largest preventable cause of death and disease, and the case for action is still urgent. There would be community outrage if any new product were developed with a market of approximately 15% of adults and 5% of school-aged young people, guaranteed to cause the deaths of one in two of its regular users.

We cannot afford complacency; we must keep the pressure on in every way, as much as we can, if we are to prevent yet more deaths and disease caused by smoking.