Australia bans tobacco branding

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Don't mean to be argumentative. I won't pursue this issue after this post. I have not and will not argue from personal experience or other anecdotal evidence and will ignore any you provide.

FACT smoking leads directly decreased lung capacity; almost all smoker either have or WILL develop emphysema. Damaged lungs mean it's harder to fight minor respiratory infections.

The range of illnesses directly associated with smoking overall cost are well documented. (Google is your friend)

Smoking Related Illnesses and Diseases

Cancer
Cancer was one of the first diseases that was conclusively related to cigarette smoking. The first cancer studied, and still the best known, was lung cancer. However, it is now known that smoking is related to cancers in many parts of the body including the: throat, mouth, larynx (voice box), oesophagus, lung, kidney, bladder, pancreas, stomach, blood (leukaemia) and cervix.

Your risk of getting a smoking related cancer increases with the number of years you have been smoking and the number of cigarettes that you smoke.

Diseases of the Cardiovascular System
Cigarette smoking causes atherosclerosis - the hardening and narrowing of the arteries. This process occurs to some degree anyway as we age, but smoking accelerates the process even for young people. This leads to an increased risk of stroke, heart disease, aneurysms of the aorta and peripheral vascular disease, which can lead to amputations of the limbs.

Diseases of the Respiratory System
The lungs of smokers are likely to become damaged. Damage of the lung tissue can lead to diseases such as emphysema, which reduce the capacity of the lungs to extract oxygen from the air we breathe. 90% of cases of emphysema seen by physicians are caused by smoking.

Damaged lungs are also less able to fight infection, which leaves smokers more likely to get infections of the respiratory tract including bronchitis and pneumonia. It should be noted here that expectant mothers who smoke are likely to be causing damage to their unborn baby's lungs.

Smoking and Pregnancy
Smoking affects every stage of the reproductive cycle. As mentioned above, it damages the unborn baby's lungs. The additional damage it causes is summarised below:

* It reduces fertility so it is more difficult to fall pregnant
* It increases complications in pregnancy, such as anomalies of the placenta (eg placenta previa - which usually necessitates a caesarian section, and placental abruption which can lead to premature labour and stillbirth). Your waters are also more likely to rupture pre-term.
* It increases the risk of a low birth weight baby. Low birth weight babies have an increased risk of subnormal development, illness and death. By low birth weight babies, we are not referring to small parents who give birth to genetically lighter but healthy babies. Low birth weight babies are babies that should have been born heavier, but their growth and development in the womb has been stunted by their mother's smoking. One cause of this is the restriction of the blood vessels in the umbilical cord caused by nicotine, meaning that the unborn baby receives less oxygen.
* Babies whose mothers smoke before and after pregnancy are four times more likely to die from cot death (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

http://www.champixinfo.co.uk/smoking-and-health.shtml

COST OF SMOKING IN AUSTRALIA

Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in Australia killing 50 Australians daily, 350 each week, and around 19,000 every year.


*

Smoking causes 20% of all cancers, 21% of all heart disease and costs $12.7 billion a year in health care, lost productivity and other costs (1998).


* The decline in the adult smoking rate has stalled on around 25% of the population, with smoking rates of women showing the least decline and rates of smoking amongst indigenous Australians remaining well above the national average.

* Smoking rates of children are rising after a decade of decline during the 1980s. The prevalence of smoking among minors in ‘the past week’, was 28% and 31% of 17 year old boys and girls respectively (1993).

* A child who starts smoking aged 14 years, is 5 times more likely to die from lung cancer than someone who began smoking at 24, and 15 times more likely to die from lung cancer than someone who has never smoked (Doran, Girgis, Sanson-Fisher, 1998 Australian Journal of Public Health vol22 no3).

http://www.ashaust.org.au/lv4/Lv4publica..._costs.htm

The personal financial cost

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2...enDocument

I support any measure short of banning tobacco production and sale aimed at reducing the number of new smokers. I think existing smoking addicts are pretty well fucked. I've been trying to find statistics on the long term success rate of quitting smoking. By long term I mean more than 2 years. No luck so a far.The most optimistic short term results (claimed by the NHS in the UK) seem to be about 50%. I'm unable to accept that figure without independent verification.To to be blunt, I think it's likely the NHS fudged the figures by using a dubious methodology.[which included self reporting].


It seems our perceptions and interpretations of the same facts vary at some fundamental level. My basic position is that cigarette smoking is pernicious addiction which kills thousands of people each year who pay for the privilege. I consider smoking a significant social evil,which will only ever be eliminated by becoming socially unacceptable and uneconomic to produce.. I have nothing further to say on this issue.