BANNING TOBACCO TO NEW GENERATIONS IS THE BEST WAY FORWARD

August 31, 2012

Question: What do Singapore, Finland and Tasmania have in common?

Answer: A determination to eradicate smoking on their soil.

This month, Tasmania's Upper House unanimously passed a motion that would ban the sale of tobacco and tobacco products to anyone born after the year 2000. That means that the post-millenium generation would be entirely smoke free, apart form the remaining twentieth century smokers. Tasmania's Department of Health and Human Services highlights the island state's higher than national average smoking rate. And that, in a nation where tobacco is: "the single largest preventable cause of premature death and disease." The motion, proposed by the independent MP Ivan Dean, will now have to be approved by the lower house in order to be enshrined in law.

Would it be a violation of our human rights? No more than banning strolling on railway tracks or unhygienic restaurants. The issue has nothing to do with human rights: it is all about the Mafia of tobacco companies, their influential friends and their economies. But the cost is too high. If a few brave countries or states make the first move, they will soon show the other up and the trend may snowball. Bring it on!

Here's what the World Health Organisation has to say about smoking:

"Tobacco use is among the leading preventable causes of death. Each year, the global tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people, including more than 600,000 who die from exposure to second-hand smoke. It is on track to kill more than 8 million by 2030, by which time approximately 80% of the deaths would occur in low- and middle-income countries.

"The costs of tobacco use are measured in its enormous toll of disease, suffering and family distress. Economies also suffer from increased health-care costs and decreased productivity.