twrama 1990_final oc.. - AMA WA

FOCUS
No
smoke
without
ire
WA cannot slip in the continuing
fight against Big Tobacco
For years the Australian Medical Association (WA) has
played a leading role in making smoking history. The
AMA (WA) has written, pushed, argued and campaigned for
a range of steps over the last three decades aimed to phase
out smoking as a tolerable, acceptable or even fashionable
practice.
These years of lobbying a variety of governments,
politicians, bureaucrats on ways to end smoking as an
acceptable practice have been enormously successful and
have undoubtedly improved the health and saved the lives of
thousands of West Australians. The AMA (WA) has won a
number of prestigious national awards for our battle against
tobacco – certainly a change from the years when doctors
were quite happy to see tobacco companies use their public
standing to sell the product.
Of course it sometimes seems that the fight, especially
in the battlefield of public opinion was a case of two steps
forward, one back. The latest success in that battle was the
decision by the High Court on tobacco plain packaging, to be
introduced on 1 December 2012.
But like many public health campaigns, the tobacco
industry was not immediately accepting of the changed
environment and has begun fighting the decision on a range
of grounds – including trade and intellectual property rights.
It is also interesting to see how many tobacco products
use menthol in them. Experts in the field believe this is
because menthol makes the smoke smoother, and therefore,
presumably, more palatable. This is more attractive to a
variety of markets – especially kids – they start with the
smoother product, get hooked, then stay with it or move on to
other brands.
History: Tobacco industry ads would often appear in
medical journals.
Experts in the field believe strongly that this this is
therefore a “gateway” product, which must be examined
closely for its use and addictive qualities.
Also worrying in this seemingly endless “two steps
forward, one back” game is the lack of leadership on the
tobacco issue from the State Government. For example,
the WA Tobacco Products Control Act 2006 required that
a review of the manner in which the Act was operating
and its effectiveness be conducted within five years.
This was completed by the Health Department last year
and its findings released by way of a discussion paper.
Encouragingly, this review raised a number of options which
would “further protect the WA community from tobaccorelated
harm”.
While not endorsed officially by either the Health
Department or the Minister, the fact that they were
seriously and carefully raised in a report written by the
Health Department gave some steel to the spines of those
continuing the fight against big tobacco.
The 15 options raised in the discussion paper
included:
• Ban the sale of fruit and confectionary-flavoured
cigarettes.
• Introduce a buffer zone around entrances, air conditioning
intakes and in relation to alfresco eating areas.
• Introduce a complete ban on smoking in all outdoor eating
areas.
• Consider removing the smoking exemption given to the
46 MEDICUS October