A TAMWORTH anti-smoking advocate says a smoke-free environment on the western side of town would have merit.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It comes as cancer groups across Australia rally support to raise the legal smoking age to 21.
The current legal age is 18, but peak oncology groups say 95 per cent of all adults start smoking before they turn 21.
Tamworth Heart Foundation spokeswoman Penny Milson said it was worth looking into, but said initiatives and funded programs had already significantly eroded smoking’s allure.
“Smoking rates in adolescents have come down significantly,” Ms Milson told The Leader.
“About one quarter of teens smoked in 1996, now less than five per cent smoke.
“What we’re doing now is working and we need continued investment, we know when we stop the ads, there’s less calls to the Quitline.”
RELATED ARTICLES:
She said enforcing smoke-free environments, such as Tamworth’s CBD, was effective and a similar move in West Tamworth “would have merit”, but would require consultation with the community.
The western side of Tamworth has one of the biggest smoking rates in the state, according to the Australian Health Policy Collaboration Health Tracker Map.
The smoking rate among people over the age of 18, living in western Tamworth, was at 30.3 per cent.
The area was only topped by Mt Druitt with a rate of 31.2 per cent.
The entire Tamworth local government area had a smoking rate of 19.9 per cent.
President of the Private Cancer Physicians of Australia, Dr Christopher Steer, said the rates of smoking in regional Australia was significantly higher than in the cities. “As oncologists, we see, too often, the horrible and deadly impact of what happens when young people become addicted to nicotine,” Dr Steer said.
An online poll of The Leader’s readers found 28 per cent supported lifting the legal age to 21, while more than 40 per cent said smoking should be banned altogether, 27 per cent wanted no change.