Media release: February 13, 2003
Passive smoke kills over 200 Australians a year
...
and tobacco costs rise for businesses and hospitals
Australian
governments are being urged to end their ten year delay over enforcing smoking
bans in pubs and clubs, following the release of a new national study showing
passive tobacco smoke is now killing more than 200 Australians a year – and
costing the nation millions in lost productivity and hospital expenses.
The
major study for the National Drug Strategy* found that in 1998-99, involuntary
smoke killed 224 Australians – 103 of them under 15 years old; used up 77,950
hospital bed days; and drained $47.6m in hospital costs. Smoking (both voluntary
and involuntary) is estimated to cost businesses more than $3.5b a year due to
higher sickness and absentee rates and production losses.
The
SmokeFree ’03 coalition of health and trade union groups has called for
Federal and State governments to speed up banning smoking from all workplaces
following the release of the report. Says coalition spokesperson Anne Jones, CEO
of ASH Australia:
“All
workers have the right to breathe clean air, but we still have around 25% of
Australian employees working in dangerous, smoky workplaces – mostly in
hotels, clubs and gaming rooms.”
SF’03
will promote the smokefree push in giant banners at the Star City Charity Shield
Rugby League game between Souths Rabbitohs and St George Dragons at Sydney’s
Aussie Stadium on Saturday February 15th at 7.30pm.
The
banners, reading “PASSIVE SMOKE
KILLS – SMOKEFREE PUBS & CLUBS IN 2003” will be broadcast live on Fox
Sports to more than a quarter of a million homes.
View
the banners at
www.ashaust.org.au/SF’03/graphics/Stadiumbanner.htm.
Australia
now lags behind several countries, including Ireland and Norway, and US cities
(New York, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles) - that have made all workplaces
smokefree, including bars.
*
Collins DJ and Lapsley HM, “Counting the cost: estimates of the social costs
of drug abuse in Australia 1998-9”,
Monograph series No.49, National Drug Strategy 2002; www.health.gov.au/pubhlth/publicat/document/mono49.pdf.
Comment:
Anne Jones, ASH Australia
ph. 0417-227-879
Media info, SF’03 contacts:
Stafford Sanders
ph. (02) 9334-1823
SmokeFree
’03 coalition: (weblink:
www.ashaust.org.au/SF’03/index.htm)
Liquor,
Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers’ Union (LHMU); Musicians’ Union of
Australia;
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA); Australian Council of Trade
Unions (ACTU);
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Australia; The Cancer Council Australia (TCCA);
National Heart Foundation of Australia (NHF); Australian Council on Smoking and
Health (ACOSH).