Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the second of April. I'm Emma Gillespie.
I'm Zara Zeidler.
This week Australia became the second country in the world to mandate health warnings on individual cigarette sticks. The change is a part of several new tobacco control measures, which we're going to take you through in more detail in today's Deep Dive.
Now, m we have spoken many times and written many times about vaping. As of late, it's the new thing that we know is particularly pertinent when it comes to young people. But as a result, I do feel like, certainly in the media and perhaps at society at large, we have stopped talking about cigarettes as much, perhaps as we have as vabes. Can you just give us, I guess, a lay of the land as to how popular smoking still is, because I think there is a bit of a misconception there.
Yeah, absolutely, and I think we're kind of seeing that reflected in current strategies from the government about cracking down on the illicit tobacco market, the black market there with cigarettes. But in terms of what we know definitively about the smoking rate in Australia. It's more than halved since two thousand and one, so a lot of progress has been made. Government data shows us though that eight point three percent
of Australians over the age of fourteen smoked tobacco cigarettes daily. Now. In nineteen ninety one that figure was twenty four percent. So, as I said, a lot of progress has been made, but that's still eight point three percent of Australians.
Now.
There has been a global decline in tobacco usage around the world. This is not a unique trend in Australia, but we are here in Australia actually exceeding global targets. So the Weld Health Organization set this goal for countries around the world to reduce their tobacco usage by thirty percent between twenty twelve and twenty twenty five. Now, in an update from the WHO last year, Australia was expected to exceed that target and reach a thirty five percent
national decrease by this year. A caveat here, and I guess before we go any further, is that these WHO figures include traditional cigarettes and heated tobacco products, but not vapes that contain nicotine only, and that eight point three percent of Australians who smoke daily. That figure is referring
to people who are smoking cigarettes tobacco cigarettes. So we do know that smoking rates have declined and that vaping rates have surged, but the latest kind of data on that precedes these strong anti vaping measures that we've seen rolled out in the last few years. So the kind of national survey that we look to for this information
is called the National Household Drug Survey. It was last conducted in the twenty twenty two to twenty three financial year, and of course since then vaping rules have changed, and as you mentioned, there is maybe an anecdotal uptick in the rates of smoking amongst young people as a result of those reforms. So we'll be looking to the next survey to find out kind of more about that figure specifically.
Yeah, but even here you've said eight percent of us is over the age of fourteen smoke daily. That is still while comparative to where it used to be smaller, it is still quite a significant portion of the community who are still smoking cigarettes, and that figure doesn't include vaping. What does the latest data tell us about the health outcomes for the smokers. We've learnt so much over the last you know, however, many decades exactly.
So, even though there are less people smoking, the negative health outcomes caused by smoking are still very, very serious, and there are many health issues associated with smoking. A statement from the Department of Health last month actually said that long terms, smokers die ten years earlier than non smokers, and tobacco smoking remains one of the leading causes of
preventable death and disability in Australia. So what we're kind of seeing rolled out this week in response to that are some new measures aimed at improving public health rates overall, aimed at reducing those preventable deaths, and part of that includes several new health warnings.
Yeah, and so this is what I really wanted to zero in on, because when we received this information, we weren't sure if it was April fools, just by nature of the day, when you're working in news and it's April first, you never quite know what you're meant to
do with that. But no, it's not April Fools. From yesterday, we understand that individual cigarettes will have health warnings published onto them or printed onto them, and that is in addition to existing plane packaging laws and warnings that go on the outside of the packet. Yeah, I guess let's go from the outside in. Those plane packaging law have been in place for quite a while. Now, what do we know about their effectiveness? And then I want to go to this more recent news.
Yes, so you would probably be very familiar with those quite graphic images on the packaging of cigarettes. Those warnings have been in place since December twenty twelve, things like messaging and images of a gangrenous foot which has a warning alongside it saying smoking causes vascular disease. Everyone has seen those pictures, and experts say that those warnings are effective, that they do work when it comes to increasing knowledge about the harms of smoking and preventing smoking uptake and
encouraging smokers to quit. But what they have acknowledged is that their effectiveness decreases over time. So as we become more and more accustomed to seeing these images, they are less shocking, we become desensitized to them, and they are therefore less impactful. So it's hoped that a range of mandatory new tobacco health warnings are going to shift that sentiment again. And I'd smokers that education and also access to support services.
Okay, so talk me through those changes then I mentioned one of them before.
Yeah, So, as of the first of April yesterday, all cigarettes sold in Australia must have those individual warnings printed on them. As you mentioned under the changes, that includes eight different phrases. So each cigarette will have one of eight phrases that includes a phrase causes sixteen cancers and
damages your lungs and damages your DNA on each cigarette. Now, according to the Department of Health, those warnings provide information to quote help people understand the consequences of smoking and encourage people to stop smoking or to not start at all.
I don't know if you're going to answer this, but the logistics of this blows my mind.
Yeah.
The idea of printing these tiny messages on these tiny cigarettes, yep. And then my brain immediately goes to does the message disappear when you start smoking? How does that actually work?
No, it's a really good question, and I think we all had that question when reading this announcement. The warnings are actually printed on both sides of the cigarette filter, so it's the filter part of the cigarette that doesn't burn down. Rather than the paper, So these warnings are preserved on that filter on either side, you know, long after the cigarette has been smoked. And you know, even though this is a really interesting kind of reform, it's
not the first time it's happened in the world. The government announced this legislation about a year ago and at the time there was no one else doing it. But since then Canada has actually rolled out its own very similar approach. There are phrases like quote poison in every puff and cigarettes cause cancer that appear near the filter of cigarettes sold there. The Canadian Cancer Society has said that those health warnings are there with every cigarette and
every puff during every smoke break. They simply cannot be ignored.
They said, I mean, even though there is one country, that's not a lot, there's not a lot of precedent here, and Australia has kind of led the way when it comes to tobacco reform, and clearly the same as being done here. You did mention though, that the individual warnings are not the only reform that took effect yesterday. What else was there?
Yes So there are also ten new graphic health warnings for cigarette packaging. So the ones that we discussed before that were introduced originally in twenty twelve. They're going to get a bit of a refresh, so some new and different images and messaging. There's also going to be these new health promotion inserts inside the packets of the cigarettes, So there'll be ten new promotional inserts and they will
include information on quitting and support services like Quitline. So I think what's really interesting about these is that, you know, rather than the shock factor maybe of the warnings and the images, these inserts are really focused on educating people about the benefits of quitting, the social benefits, the health benefits, and they provide advice and strategies to kind of help people quit and begin that journey with some resources and support.
There is also a ban being rolled out on menthol cigarettes, and that's going to be a phased ban which started yesterday for.
People who maybe aren't familiar with what a menthol cigarette is, what is it and why menthols.
Yes, so this one is really about banning an ingredient that makes smoking taste better essentially, So.
The same argument as vaping about the flavored vapes exactly.
So mental cigarettes kind of have like a menthol bead near the filter that smokers crack and it sends this kind of cooling flavor through the cigarette product.
And simply had no idea. That's what happened. Learn something new every day.
It's really interesting. And it's funny you mentioned that the vaping flavors there, because the policy that has informed this kind of crackdown really ties into similar strategies that we've seen with vaping. So Health Minister Mark Butler launched a crackdown on flavored vapes, and as part of that he sort of described these products being marketed to young people specifically. And that's what we're seeing here. There's this crackdown on
smoking products that taste good or that look different. There's this other standardized measure being rolled out about the size of cigarette sticks. So no more novelty pack sizes or no more long cigarettes.
I was gonna say there was always I mean, I don't know if this was pop culture movies, I don't know what it is, but like the long, thin cigarette, yes, being thought of as classy exactly. Imagine this is all trying to crack down on repackaging something that no matter which way you look at it is still bad for you. Yep.
So when he announced these new tobacco control measures. Mark Butler touched on exactly what you've just articulated, Zara. He said, quote big Tobacco has found these innovative ways to make their products seem almost cool, particularly appealing to young Australians and young smokers. He said. They use additives and flavors like menthol capsules, and they use shapes and colorings that are deliberately designed to make them look effective, like so
called vogue that are popular on Instagram. Exactly what you've described there, Zara. Butler said that they use quote cool but ultimately misleading names and brands, things like Crush, Organic, Smooth or Vogues.
Yeah, it is really fascinating. And the fact that these moves have already been made when it comes to vaping and now we're kind of going back to the cigarettes to implement very similar reforms exactly in some ways shows I guess how intrinsically linked these two things are. And I do want to just finish by getting a sense of how health advocates in the country have responded to these reforms.
Yeah, so they have been broadly welcomed by health advocates and groups like the Cancer Council, Cancer Council Australia, who described our country as world leaders in tobacco control. I think you know, we've seen that over the years with the packaging reforms, with the taxation on cigarettes. They said
that the reforms are quote effective evidence based measures. Interestingly, Cancer Council also pointed out to the fact that the new warnings will include smoking harms that many people might not actually be aware of, such as diabetes, a rectile dysfunction, cervical cancer, DNA damage, the impact of secondhand smoke on children's lung capacity. And then we had the director of
Quit the Support Service, Rachel Anderson. She said she hopes the changes will educate Australians quote acting as both a disincentive to smoke and a bridge to services such as quitline and quit dot org dot AU.
I guess it's just a matter of time now to see whether these reforms are as effective as the government hopes that they will be. I do imagine though, that regardless of the fact that these measures came into force yesterday, there are likely still going to be products that don't conform to the new era rules. So what happens there.
So this was actually announced, these reforms were announced late last year, and manufacturers and importers and retailers were kind of offered this transition period to give them time to sh shift to the new arrangements. So that transition period
was largely seen as finishing up at the end of March. However, from now until the end of June, basically retailers are allowed to sell through stock that doesn't meet these new requirements, and then from the thirtieth of June the government will be more hardline on enforcing those regulations amongst retailers and there will be penalties and fines for retailers who are selling product that does not contain those new warnings.
Am a really interesting topic. Thank you for explaining that. Thank you, and thank you for listening to another episode of The Daily Oas as always, we'll be vaculated today with the headlines. But until then, I have a great day. My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Calcuttin woman from Gadigl Country. The Daily os acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torystrenth
island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.