Media release: June 13, 2006
Bar
and gaming workers and entertainers have called for a quick and total shutdown
of smoking in indoor and partly indoor licensed areas, following a new study on
workplace cancer risk.
The
study* by the Queensland Cancer Fund and University of Sydney, just published in
the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health,
attributes 30% of all male lung cancer cases in Australia to exposure to
carcinogens in the workplace – including secondhand smoke.
The study shows thousands of hospitality workers are still exposed to
carcinogenic tobacco smoke.
The
SmokeFree Australia coalition of major employee and health organisations** says
the study confirms its worst fears about the risk still faced by many
hospitality workers in enclosed and mostly enclosed areas of pubs and clubs in
most states and territories.
Says
coalition spokesperson Anita Tang of The Cancer Council Australia: “Health
authorities right up to the World Health Organisation have found that secondhand
smoke is carcinogenic to non-smokers – it causes not just lung and throat but
an increasing range of cancers.
“Despite
this, NSW, Victoria, SA and ACT in particular have been slow to get rid of smoke
from indoor areas, and current legislation would allow it to continue in mostly
enclosed and staffed areas indefinitely.
“This
latest study shows that’s a recipe for continued preventable cancers.”
Adds
Stafford Sanders, Co-ordinator of SmokeFree Australia: “Many hospitality
employees – including bar, food service, entertainment and gaming workers -
are being left to suffer and die in unsafe workplaces by state governments too
keen to cave in to powerful hotel and gaming bosses.
“The
result is a wide range of preventable harm – not just cancer but also heart,
respiratory, meningococcal, diabetic, sexual, reproductive and other harm - for
which employers have been and will continue to be held legally responsible.
“Governments
propping up these unsafe workplaces is a travesty of OH&S laws and makes it
impossible for work safety authorities to do their job of consistently enforcing
safe workplace laws.
“We
are seeking urgent action by all parliaments to bring their laws up to those of
the leading states – Queensland and Tasmania – which have quickly removed
smoking to separate, unserviced and substantially unenclosed areas.”
*
Fritschi L and Driscoll T, “Cancer due to occupation in Australia” (2006) in
ANZJP 30(3):213-219
Comment:
Anita Tang, The Cancer Council Australia
m. 0407-226-463
Stafford Sanders, SmokeFree Australia
ph. (02) 9334-1823 m.
0412-070-194
* SmokeFree Australia coalition
for clean safe workplaces:
Liquor,
Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers’ Union; Musicians’ Union of Australia; Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance; Australian Council of
Trade Unions; Action on Smoking and Health Australia; The Cancer Council
Australia; National Heart Foundation of Australia; Australian Council on Smoking
and Health; Non-Smokers’ Movement of Australia; Australian Medical
Association; Asthma and Allergy Research Institute.