The Progress of Tobacco Control in Western Australia: Achievements, Challenges and Hopes for the Future
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The progress of tobacco control in Western Australia: in Western control tobacco of The progress The progress of tobacco control in Western Australia: achievements, challenges and hopes for the future. achievements, challenges and hopes for thefuture. challengesandhopesfor achievements, The progress of tobacco control in Western Australia: achievements, challenges and hopes for the future. The progress of tobacco control in Western Australia: achievements, challenges and hopes for the future. First published in 2008 by The Cancer Council Western Australia 46 Ventnor Avenue West Perth WA 6005 © The Cancer Council Western Australia, 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher. To obtain copies of this publication please contact: The Administration Offi cer Tobacco Programs The Cancer Council Western Australia 46 Ventnor Avenue West Perth WA 6005 Australia Telephone: 08 9212 4333 Facsimile: 08 9212 4334 Website: www.cancerwa.asn.au Email: [email protected] The Cancer Council Western Australia gratefully acknowledges the funding support of Healthway and the Department of Health. Suggested citation: The Cancer Council Western Australia. The progress of tobacco control in Western Australia: achievements, challenges and hopes for the future. Perth: The Cancer Council Western Australia; 2008. ISBN 1876628855 The progress of tobacco control in Western Australia: achievements, challenges and hopes for the future. Foreword The fi ght for public health is a long and diffi cult battle against ignorance, vested interests, and social inequities. Nonetheless, progress in Western Australia in addressing smoking has been one of the great success stories of public health in the latter part of the twentieth century. Smoking and cigarette advertising used to be ubiquitous, but today, most adults do not smoke, fewer children are taking up the habit, and smoking is seen by the community as a serious public health problem. This huge change is testimony to the persistence and drive of many individuals and organisations over the decades. These campaigners have made the public aware of the dangers of smoking for smokers and non-smokers alike, and have publicised the misdeeds of the tobacco industry. Most importantly they have convinced politicians and bureaucrats that action could be taken to curb the use of tobacco. This publication is timely. It brings together for the fi rst time a comprehensive account of tobacco control in Western Australia, the achievements, challenges, and hopes for the future. In doing so, it also provides a blueprint for other equally intractable public health issues that are only now starting to attract the public and political interest they ought to have. In refl ecting on progress in tobacco control in Western Australia, we can rejoice in the lives it has saved and in the health it has given back to ex-smokers. But much remains to be done. There is still a need for concerted action, regular review of achievements, and the invention of new tactics. We also have to ensure that a proper level of government investment is maintained, so that we can continue to support robust and innovative legislative programs and powerful public education programs. The simple fact is, tobacco is still a major killer despite the gains made over the past four decades. Professor Charles Watson AM MBBS MD FAFPHM Chair, Medical & Scientifi c Committee The Cancer Council Western Australia i The progress of tobacco control in Western Australia: achievements, challenges and hopes for the future. Acknowledgments This publication would not have been possible without the assistance of many individuals who, with the support of their organisations, readily lent their time and expertise to ensure a comprehensive and accurate account of tobacco control in this State. The Cancer Council Western Australia gratefully acknowledges the support of: • The Department of Health Western Australia and the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation (Healthway) in allowing access to, and the inclusion of, epidemiological data on smoking and the evaluation of past public education campaigns in various papers contained in this publication. • Dr Lisa Wood, Susan Stewart, Fiona Phillips, Dishan Weerasooriya, Roslyn Frances, Professor Robert Donovan, Michelle Scollo and Professor Melanie Wakefi eld in collating information on the development of, and investment in, public education campaigns on smoking in Western Australia. • Maurice Swanson, Professor Michael Daube, and Addy Carroll in verifying the historic accuracy of key events in tobacco control in Western Australia. • Zoe Rudder, Ciara O’Flaherty and Narelle Weller for their patience in rounding up papers from busy and sometimes elusive authors, and attention to detail in checking facts and issues, as was required throughout. • Professors Charles Watson and Simon Chapman in reviewing papers. • Betty Durston and Whitecastle Design and Illustration for their careful editing, design and production of this publication; and lastly, • our authors whose contribution to this publication and tobacco control overall have been considerable. This publication has been a long journey, being conceived in May 2006. For public health advocates of tobacco control, it has been a longer and harder journey with no end in sight – yet. We recognise your eff orts and hope that this publication will cause others to ponder on what you have made possible and be inspired to join with you in your important work. Copy editor: Mar Bucknell Proofreader: Rebecca Newman ii The progress of tobacco control in Western Australia: achievements, challenges and hopes for the future. Contents Page Foreword i Acknowledgments ii Contents iii Introduction 1 Simon Chapman Tobacco use and health 7 Peter Somerford Changes in the attitudes and beliefs of West Australian smokers, 1984–2007 23 Owen Carter Kids and smoking – then, and now 31 Lisa Wood The contribution of scientists to tobacco control 45 Konrad Jamrozik Advocating for tobacco control in Western Australia, 1971 to the present 55 Michael Daube, Noni Walker The media and tobacco 71 Marnie McKimmie, Cathy O’Leary Tobacco control legislation and public policy in Western Australia, 1911–2007 77 Maurice G Swanson, Betty Durston Public education campaigns on smoking in Western Australia: their evolution and eff ects 89 Lisa Wood, Denise Sullivan, Robert Donovan Healthway’s contribution to tobacco control in Western Australia, 1991–2007 115 Addy Carroll, Noni Walker Is an end to smoking in sight? Next steps toward making smoking history 129 Denise Sullivan Appendix A: Tobacco control timeline for Western Australia 141 Appendix B: A chronology of West Australian anti-smoking television campaigns, 1984–2007 145 iii The progress of tobacco control in Western Australia: achievements, challenges and hopes for the future. iv The progress of tobacco control in Western Australia: achievements, challenges and hopes for the future. Introduction Simon Chapman Professor of Public Health University of Sydney Editor, Tobacco Control Australia has achieved greater falls in daily smoking prevalence than any other nation other than Canada1 and, with the exception of the Australian Capital Territory, Western Australia has attained a lower adult smoking prevalence than any other state2 and the lowest level of smoking by youth. There are some Asian and west African nations which have lower smoking levels, but this is mostly explained by their deep cultural proscriptions against female smoking. Asian women do not smoke much, so when you combine them with men, several Asian nations have a lower combined sex smoking prevalence than Australia. By any world standard, Australia has done a lot of things right and much of it has been pioneered in Western Australia. Since the early 1960s when the early evidence against smoking was fi rst consolidated, Australia has seen four broad eras of contemporary tobacco control: Era 1 ran from about 1962 to 1973. These were eleven years when newspapers regularly publicised the emerging bad news about smoking, but also when governments failed to introduce any tobacco control measures. It was when Cotter Harvey, the founder of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health (ACOSH) and Nigel Gray, then head of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, laid the foundations of modern tobacco control advocacy. Driven almost entirely by negative news coverage, tobacco use started heading south, to never again head upward. Era 2, from 1973 to 1982, saw the fi rst health warning peeping from the bottom of cigarette packs and on advertising and thanks to the Whitlam and Fraser governments, the fi rst body blow to tobacco advertising, with the ban on TV and radio advertising that entered into force in September 1976. The downward slide picked up speed. As Daube and Walker document in this report, Western Australia was in the vanguard with early State bills to ban tobacco advertising in other media and did the world a service by providing a stage for the industry to rehearse a pattern of arguments that we all learned to critique in our sleep. Era 3, from 1982 to 2006, saw the commencement of the fi rst sustained government Quit campaigns and in the early period, the heyday of BUGA UP (Billboard Utilising Graffi tists Against Unhealthy Promotions) – with a local West Australian chapter –