Cigarette smoking is the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in Australia. It is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, as well as a range of cancers and other diseases and conditions.
Decide to quit
The single most important thing a smoker can do for their cardiovascular health is to quit smoking. One of the first steps in the quitting process is to decide that you want to quit, then set a quit date and plan towards it.
Get support
Call us on 1300 36 27 87 to order our "Smoking and Your Health" booklet to help you to get started. Think about when and why you smoke, plan ahead for difficult situations that you'll face and have other ways to cope than by smoking.
For further support and information on quitting, call the Quitline on 13 QUIT, a 24-hour counselling service for smokers. Ask your doctor or pharmacist about using nicotine chewing gum, patches or inhalers to support your quitting efforts.
Quitting smoking is a process that sometimes takes a number of attempts. Never give up giving up!
Make your home smoke-free
Another way to be smoke-free is to make your house a smoke-free zone. This protects the non-smokers in the household, especially children and people with heart disease. Also, when you are out, ask for a smoke-free area. Encourage your local pub, café or restaurant to make their alfresco dining areas smoke-free.
Second-hand smoking and your health - information sheet (2008)
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Plain packaging of tobacco products
Following increased restrictions on traditional forms of tobacco advertising and promotion in Australia, the cigarette pack has become an increasingly important marketing tool and means of communicating brand quality and image to potential and current smokers.
Therefore, reforms to how tobacco products are promoted through packaging are essential to reducing the unacceptable level of death and disability caused by smoking in Australia.
Cigarette pack plain packaging as advocated by non-government tobacco control organisations. Left to right: Image 1 - front of pack (90% health warning), image 2 - front of pack (75% health warning), image 3 - rear of pack.
- A comprehensive ban on the advertising and promotion of tobacco products, including through the pack itself, is essential to reducing the harm caused by tobacco in Australia;
- The plain packaging of cigarettes would eliminate the tobacco industry’s ability to promote smoking and brand personality through the pack, would reduce rates of smoking initiation and consumption, enhance the effectiveness of pack warnings and remove the pack’s ability to mislead and deceive consumers;
- A survey of 3000 Victorian adults in 2006 found that more than half of the current, former and never smokers surveyed supported plain packaging;
The Australian government should ban the display on packs of all trademarks, texts and logos, together with all colours and other attractive decorative or design features.
- Only prescribed information and graphics, such as brand names, product names, manufacturer details, the number of cigarettes in a pack, prescribed health warnings and any other government-mandated information for consumers, should be permitted to appear on packs in a prescribed size, font, colour and location.
- Packs should only be permitted to be made from a prescribed material in a standardized, dull colour and shape (inside and outside the pack). The permitted shapes and formats of packs should also be prescribed.
The use of perfuming, audio chips and any other material not prescribed should be prohibited.
- The display of misleading descriptors and yield information on packs should be banned. Only product names that describe taste should be permitted.
Plain Packaging Will Save Lives
The National Heart Foundation of Australia has congratulated the Australian Government for its commitment to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products. Heart Foundation National CEO, Dr Lyn Roberts, said that Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon was displaying outstanding leadership on tobacco control.
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Tobacco Tax Increase Will Slash Cancer And Cardiovascular disease Deaths
Australia’s future cancer and cardiovascular disease burden will be dramatically reduced as a result of the Government’s decision to increase tobacco tax by 25 per cent, Cancer Council Australia and the National Heart Foundation of Australia said today (29 April 2010).
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