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Smoking and tobacco regulation

There are still more than 20,000 deaths caused by smoking every year.

Key takeaways

Smoking rates are coming down in Australia but there are still more than 20,000 deaths caused by smoking every year.

Tobacco smoke is one of the main risk factors for heart disease and is responsible for 12% of the burden (death and illness) of cardiovascular disease in Australia.

All people who smoke and/or vape should be encouraged and helped to quit as a matter of urgency. First-line, evidence-based treatment for smoking cessation is multi-session behavioural intervention combined, if clinically appropriate, with pharmacotherapies approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Seven steps to reduce smoking in Australia

Price increases of tobacco are the most effective single measure to prevent and reduce tobacco use.

Higher prices discourage non-smokers from starting, encourage current smokers to quit, and discourage former smokers from starting again.

Advocating for the Commonwealth Government to make an ongoing commitment to price increases on tobacco products is a Heart Foundation priority.

What is happening in Australia to make smoking less affordable?	What needs to happen to make smoking less affordable?
Price increases Cigarette prices should continue to rise when Commonwealth tax rates for tobacco increase by 12.5% each year on 1 September from 2017 to 2020. Roll Your Own (RYO) tobacco prices should be equivalent to factory made cigarettes (FMC) after legislation passed in August 2017 bought RYO tax into line with FMC.	Stop price discounting The Federal Government should develop policies, such as a minimum floor price for cigarettes, to prevent price discounting Victoria should end multi-pack discounts and specials on tobacco in promotional schemes. All states and territories should prohibit tobacco wholesalers offering discounts to tobacco retailers.
Sale of cigarettes and tobacco in small packs not permitted The sale of packs designed or readily able to be, divided into smaller packets of fewer than 20 cigarettes is not allowed in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. Packages containing less than 25g of Roll Your Own (RYO) tobacco are not allowed to be sold in Queensland or the Northern Territory.	Prevent sales in small packages New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia should end the sale of packs designed, or readily able to be, divided into smaller packets. New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia should not allow packages containing less than 25g of Roll Your Own (RYO) tobacco to be sold.

What is happening in Australia to make smoking less affordable?

What needs to happen to make smoking less affordable?

Price increases

Cigarette prices should continue to rise when Commonwealth tax rates for tobacco increase by 12.5% each year on 1 September from 2017 to 2020.
Roll Your Own (RYO) tobacco prices should be equivalent to factory made cigarettes (FMC) after legislation passed in August 2017 bought RYO tax into line with FMC.

Stop price discounting

The Federal Government should develop policies, such as a minimum floor price for cigarettes, to prevent price discounting
Victoria should end multi-pack discounts and specials on tobacco in promotional schemes.
All states and territories should prohibit tobacco wholesalers offering discounts to tobacco retailers.

Sale of cigarettes and tobacco in small packs not permitted

The sale of packs designed or readily able to be, divided into smaller packets of fewer than 20 cigarettes is not allowed in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.
Packages containing less than 25g of Roll Your Own (RYO) tobacco are not allowed to be sold in Queensland or the Northern Territory.

Prevent sales in small packages

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia should end the sale of packs designed, or readily able to be, divided into smaller packets.
New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia should not allow packages containing less than 25g of Roll Your Own (RYO) tobacco to be sold.

Messages through mass media and public education campaigns are effective ways to communicate the hazards of tobacco and encourage people to make a quit attempt.

We advocate strongly for investment in effective national and state media campaigns that will help educate all Australians about the dangers of tobacco smoke.

Recent campaigns include:

Make Smoking History (WA)
Quit Stalling NSW and Tasmania.
Don’t make smokes your story (national campaign with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the primary focus group).

People are exposed to campaign messages that encourage them to stop smoking, to keep trying to quit, and good reasons why they should never start smoking.

Help with how to stop smoking is provided by many different supports. It is common for people to quit for a while and then going back to smoking.

Support is needed to encourage quitting and to help those who do stop to remain non-smokers for life.

We support health professionals in all settings who inform their patients about the cardiovascular disease risks associated with smoking and how stopping smoking has immediate and long-term health benefits.

Multiple resources are available that support people to quit smoking:

Quitline 13 78 48
Websites: www.quitnow.gov.au & www.quit.org.au
Online tools: Heart Foundation Quit Smoking Action Plan and QuitCoach
Mobile apps: My QuitBuddy and Quit for You-Quit for Two.

Smoke-free environments have an impact on heart health by:

reducing exposure to second-hand smoke
reducing the number of cigarettes smoked and encouraging people to quit smoking
de-normalising smoking

Exposure to second-hand smoke is associated with immediate and longer term risks for heart disease. Smoke-free environments protect non-smokers from the dangers of second-hand smoke.

We support smoke-free legislation which is working to make all public places and popular outdoor venues, such as dining and drinking areas, completely smoke-free

Benefits of smoke-free environments

A consistent approach is needed across Australia to define and regulate smoke-free areas.

Health benefits of smoke-free environments

Reduced cardiovascular disease, especially decreases in admissions to hospital of people having a heart attack
Improved respiratory health, particularly decreases in asthma incidences and symptoms
During the first year in which smoke-free legislation is in effect, communities have experienced a 15% drop in Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) hospital admissions. This decline reaches 36% by the third year after implementation.*
Younger and non-smoking populations experienced the greatest declines. The Institute of Medicine (U.S.) concluded that there is a causal relationship between indoor smoking bans and reduced AMI risk.
Improved respiratory health, particularly decreases in asthma attacks and symptoms

Economic benefits of smoke-free environments

small positive effects on businesses including restaurants and bars
increases in worker productivity
reduced cleaning and maintenance costs
reduced insurance costs

Smoke-free housing

All Australians have a right to breathe clean air, especially in their own homes. Smoke infiltration is both a health hazard and a nuisance.

There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

We support current efforts in Queensland that call for changes in strata housing processes to give residents better protection from smoke infiltration.

Additional information on smoke-free environment laws and regulations across Australia (PDF)

*From Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Control 2016.

Point-of-sale tobacco advertising and product display is banned in Australia. Federal, state and territory laws recognise the well-established negative effects of tobacco marketing and promotion on smokers, recent quitters and youth.

The introduction of plain packaging in Australia in 2012 removed another major avenue for the promotion of tobacco products.

Price boards

Tobacco price boards offer a significant opportunity to promote tobacco products and offer price discounts.

Price boards in tobacco retailers are one of the few forms of tobacco promotion remaining in New South Wales, the Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.

A study of tobacco retailers in Melbourne found that price boards were being used strategically to promote particular brands and new products.

In Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory price boards are not permitted. Communication to consumers about prices should be restricted to information sheets provided to adult smokers on request at the point of sale.

Tobacco is the most harmful ingredient of a cigarette, in both factory made or roll-your-own. Additional features, such as filters and additives, used to make tobacco products more appealing are also harmful.

Growing evidence is emerging of how the tobacco industry manipulates cigarette design, packaging and labelling to recruit new smokers and retain current smokers. Read more on Australian cigarettes.

Cigarette filters

In Australia, approximately 90% of cigarettes have filters which act to dilute smoke with fresh air when a smoker takes a puff. This creates variety in taste strength and reduces harshness/ irritation, making the act of smoking more palatable.

To reduce the attractiveness of tobacco products, filter ventilation should no longer be permitted in Australia.
More information about cigarette filters.

Tobacco additives

Cigarette additives have a range of purposes such as: improving flavour and aroma, controlling burn rates, nicotine delivery and harshness and increasing shelf life.

More effective and consistent regulation is needed to ban sweet, fruits and menthol flavoured smoking products. This will help to reduce the attractiveness of tobacco products, particularly to young people.

In Canada the government has prohibited menthol in most tobacco products to reduce the appeal of smoking to Canadian youth.

More information on tobacco additives, including menthol.

Tobacco remains one of the most readily available consumer products, with few restrictions on who can sell it and where it can be purchased. Widespread availability is of concern because:

there are more sellers of cigarettes in areas of social and financial disadvantage
people who are trying to quit smoking are more likely to relapse if tobacco is easily available
the visibility of tobacco sellers normalises smoking and undermines other tobacco control efforts

Controls on the retail sale of tobacco

License schemes in place for tobacco retailers in:	Action is needed to set up license schemes in:
Australian Capital Territory	Queensland
Northern Territory	Victoria
South Australia	New South Wales
Tasmania
Western Australia

Vending machine sales are banned in:	Action is needed to ban vending machine sales in:
Australian Capital Territory	New South Wales
	Northern Territory
	Queensland
	South Australia
	Tasmania
	Victoria
	Western Australia

Sales from temporary and mobile outlets are not permitted in:	Action is needed to end sales from temporary and mobile outlets in:
New South Wales	Australian Capital Territory
Queensland	Northern Territory
Tasmania	South Australia
Victoria	Western Australia

Joint Heart Foundation and Quit Position statement: Smoking and vaping cessation

Together with Quit, we have developed a position statement on smoking and vaping cessation. The position statement provides key messages for health professionals, including the importance of providing brief advice at every encounter and recommending the use of first-line, evidence-based treatment for smoking cessation (behavioural intervention and TGA-approved pharmacotherapies).

Read the position statement

Smoking and tobacco regulation

There are still more than 20,000 deaths caused by smoking every year.

Key takeaways

Seven steps to reduce smoking in Australia

Benefits of smoke-free environments

Health benefits of smoke-free environments

Economic benefits of smoke-free environments

Smoke-free housing

Price boards

Cigarette filters

Tobacco additives

Controls on the retail sale of tobacco

License schemes in place for tobacco retailers in:

Action is needed to set up license schemes in:

Vending machine sales are banned in:

Action is needed to ban vending machine sales in:

Sales from temporary and mobile outlets are not permitted in:

Action is needed to end sales from temporary and mobile outlets in:

Joint Heart Foundation and Quit Position statement: Smoking and vaping cessation

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