Australia: Young Men''s Smoking Roulette

Source from:  Hobart (Tas) Mercury (au)  11/12/2012

A GENERATION of young Tasmanian men are smoking at almost double the national average, making them the nation's biggest smokers.

Almost half of young men in the state are smokers, well ahead of any other state.

Dr Julia Walters, a Hobart GP who conducts research into smoking, said the men were placing not only themselves at risk but also their young children.

"This is a shocking statistic," she said. "These are young men in their most productive years. This is the age at which they are most likely to be around young children".

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics national health survey reveals a staggering 45.8 per cent of Tasmanian men aged 25 to 34 are smokers well ahead of the national rate of 26.7 per cent for men that age.

Even young men in the Northern Territory, where disadvantage is traditionally highest, are smoking at a rate of 36.5 per cent.

Action on Smoking and Health national chief executive Anne Jones said Tasmania's young men were the only ones in the nation going backwards.

"These are like figures from decades ago," she said, calling on the Federal Government to raise tobacco taxes and channel some of the extra funding to Tasmania.

"Tasmania is in the lead with so many initiatives, but you just don't have the funds to get the message out there," she said.

Tasmania tobacco researcher Kathryn Barnsley, who is a member of SmokeFree Tasmania, agreed Tasmania needed at least to double its funding for mass-media anti-smoking campaigns.

Public health director Roscoe Taylor said inter-generational smoking was a problem, and many of the young men smoking had probably taken the lead from one of their parents.

"There is more than a double risk of smoking if even one parent had smoked," he said.

He said Tasmania needed to continue to be vigorous in smoking control measures, and extra funding for media campaigns would help the fight.

An inaugural SmokeFree Tasmania vigil will display 500 candles on Parliament House lawns on Wednesday from 7pm to 9pm, to represent the 500-plus people who die in Tasmania every year from smoking-related illnesses. Enditem