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260 health professors call for tobacco plain packs

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Four former Australians of the year are among 260 professors of health and medicine who have written to federal MPs seeking unanimous support for legislation to mandate plain packaging of tobacco products sold in Australia.

The professors, from medical and health faculties throughout Australia, have cited compelling evidence that plain packaging would make an important contribution to reducing the appeal of smoking, particularly to children and young people.

The letter, coordinated by Cancer Council Australia, the National Heart Foundation and the Public Health Association of Australia, also says the tobacco industry’s vehement resistance to plain packaging is a further indication of its potential to reduce tobacco consumption.

Professor Mike Daube from the Public Health Association of Australia said the letter’s signatories included Professors Sir Gus Nossal, Ian Frazer, Fiona Stanley and Fiona Wood, along with more than 250 other distinguished experts in health and medical science.

“Scientists of this calibre will only support health policy initiatives with such conviction if the evidence is compelling and the potential for improved public health is significant,” Professor Daube said.

“So with 20 years of evidence, including the tobacco industry’s own market research, showing how effective tobacco packaging can be for influencing young people, it is no wonder so many leading health experts back plain packaging.”

Professor Ian Olver, a medical oncologist and CEO of Cancer Council Australia, said restrictions to tobacco advertising were a critical part of a comprehensive approach to reducing consumption.


“And that’s what plain packaging is – a restriction to the last main legal avenue for promoting tobacco products to young people in Australia,” Professor Olver said.

“It is very encouraging to see both the Government and the Opposition supporting plain packaging of tobacco products. This letter, from many of the nation’s leaders in health science, is another indication of why plain packaging has rightly received bipartisan support.”

Professor Daube said recruiting so many signatories for the letter was remarkably easy, despite the potential logistical problems.

“The instant response from the professors, many of whom treat people with terminal disease caused by smoking, was ‘where can I sign?’,” he said.

“I speak on behalf of all 260 of us by saying that the federal parliament should be applauded for what we expect will be a positive response to the plain packaging legislation.”

(Source: Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA))

 
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Smoking For more information on smoking, its health effects and how to quit smoking, as well as some useful tools, videos and animations, see Smoking.

 

 

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Dates

Posted On: 1 September, 2011
Modified On: 15 January, 2014

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